Red
by WriteWithFeeling
Summary: Dreams about dead people? Check. Seeing ghosts? Check? Manipulation of people's souls so that I can bring them back from the underworld? Oh hell yes. Oh, and I forgot to add, I've decided to join a team of freaks with powers too! How joyful! (Hear my sarcasm there?) Honestly, my life can not seriously get more messed up than it already is. Oh oops! It just did.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Yes, I understand," I said to the old lady on the opposite end of the line. "Thank you very much. I look forward to receiving your letter." I hung up the phone and a feeling of anticipation and excitement began to build up in my stomach. I had done it. I had just officially arranged renting my own apartment. In Gotham, believe it or not.

It hadn't really been my first choice, but everywhere else had simply been far too expensive to buy or rent, so Gotham it was. My mum poked her blonde head around the door of my bedroom, her blue eyes shining.

"So, sweetie?" she asked, "what did she say?"

This time I couldn't help the smile that blossomed on my face. "It's a done deal, mum. I officially have my own apartment to rent in 3 weeks, and she's sending me the keys in 1 week."

My mum, bless her, let out an excited squeal. She really acted like a 3 year old at times.

"Oh sweetheart! But that's wonderful!"

I raised my eyebrow at her statement. Did she really want me to go so soon? Mum caught my look and quickly backtracked.

"No, no, no, no, what I meant was that it's great that you're so excited about this. I mean," she gestured to herself, "I am too. But not because you're going away, but because you're becoming so mature..." A faraway look entered her eyes. "I remember when you were taking your first steps, and reading your first book…" she gave a loud sniff and I had to prevent myself from rolling my eyes. "Anyway," she said, brightening up, "Dinner to cook. It's spaghetti." She grinned at me, and walked away again, a small smile on her face.

As soon as I was sure that she was gone, I sighed and slumped on top of my bed, suddenly overcome with feelings of doubt, quashing my earlier elation. What was I doing leaving mum like this? I mean, she had dad and, of course my younger twin brothers, but dad was working all of the time and my brothers just weren't old enough to understand what was happening to mum yet.

I'll put it bluntly. My mum has a brain tumor; that is, to make it extra clear, an inoperable cancerous brain tumor. That's why her moods are all over the place and why from her entire attitude will change from one minute to the next.

I remember when those thing started happening before she was diagnosed. It had been both frightening and heartbreaking to watch her go into sudden fits that she couldn't control, to hear her slur her words, and jump from being angry to happy in the space of a second. I shivered.

She was diagnosed 6 months ago, and to be honest, I don't think that the diagnosis had really done anything except solidify the fact that mum was deathly sick. And while she is getting regular radiotherapy, the cancer is going to kill her. No one, not even the doctors, have no idea how long she's got left. It could be tonight, tomorrow, or one year from now, no one had any idea.

The news had impacted my family in small ways. Mum was more determined than ever to act like nothing was wrong with and the twins… well I don't think that they understood that there mother was ill.

My dad had been hit the hardest by the news though. He buried himself in his work, more than usual anyway. I think that he's trying to pretend that the whole cancer thing doesn't exist, and that the more he distances himself, it will magically go away, but the universe doesn't work like that. I scoffed as I got up from my bed. Why would it?

To be honest, I had already tried telling mum that I was going to stay here with her, but she wasn't going to hear of it. She had told me that I was only a teenager once, and that I had to make the most of those years before they were all gone, because once they were gone they were gone for good. I sighed again. But just because she told me to get a life, didn't mean that I didn't feel guilty about it.

I walked over to my bedroom wall and gently brushed the back of my hand over the faded red pointe shoes that hung there. They were my mother's. She had been, when she was younger, a professional ballet dancer for the Gotham Ballet. A smile touched my lips, as I remembered when I had originally wanted to follow her career path. I had been young, talented, and naïve, and although I still did a weekly class, I no longer took it as seriously as I once did. Although, ever since mum's diagnosis, that had changed slightly. For me, dancing was my out. It was my time alone to work through my thoughts while dancing. It was liberating.

I had moved around a lot as a kid, and when I say move, I mean internationally. I had lived in around 5 different countries, including Germany, Russia, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands, and had finally ended up here, in the city of Blüdhaven. I guess you could say 6 if you wanted, but I didn't really count where I was living now. At first, it had been because of mum's career, but then it had slowly become dad's career as mum deteriorated. I suppose you could say that moving around so much sort of destroyed any chance of me having a proper place that I could call home, but personally I believed that the moving around had given me more access to many places that I would call home. To me, this city was just another place to be explored and discovered while it lasted. I shot a final vacant look at the faded pointe shoes and walked out of my room.

I ambled down the hallway in my socks, my eyes lingering on the photo of all five of us huddling into large winter jackets in front of St. Basil's cathedral. I smiled. The twins had been so small then.

Russia had been my favourite place, simply because the culture was so different to that of ours and because of the language. My mum was Russian, so technically I could already speak some Russian, but after living in Russia, I could now speak it fluently. I actually preferred Russian to English. There was just something so… flowing about the language and something so colourful about the language that made me prefer it to any other. Weird, I know, especially considering that Russian isn't even my native tongue. I gave the photo one last, nostalgic glance before turning away.

I padded softly down the tiled hallway and chuckled as the twins raced passed me in like a whirlwind, jabbing hard foam swords at each other and crying 'insults' at the tops of the tiny voices. I sighed. Oh to be young, fresh and innocent again.

I walked quietly into the kitchen, my mum's soft humming only just audible over the hissing of the pressure cooker sitting on the stove. I winced as I looked at how decrepit the old gas stove had become. These last months hadn't been easy on the money, and the house, even though my dad was a professional builder, was beginning to show it through the failing stove, the faulty oven and the roof that was beginning to leak.

I forced a cheerful smile onto my face, once again overcome with the feelings of doubt and guilt, before forcing them down. My mum was tough; she wouldn't stand the slightest bit of sympathy or pity.

"Hey mum," I said nonchalantly as possible.

Mum jumped, flicking her wooden stirring spoon filled with hot spaghetti sauce into the air. It went splat on the ground a metre away from where I was standing. I flushed guiltily. "Sorry," I muttered, as my mum turned around with an indignant expression on her face.

She pointed at the ground with said spoon, which was still dripping with spaghetti sauce. "Susannah. Clean it up," she ordered. I did say that my mum was tough, didn't I?

…

3 Weeks Later

The room stank. And that was putting it mildly. Mold was growing on the not so white walls and a thick layer of dust covered the bench and the floors. And was that…? I gulped. I didn't want to think about what possible 'delicacies' could be on the rotten carpet. I wrinkled my nose as I stepped gingerly on the cold ground and looked for a place that might actually be clean enough to put my bag. I scanned the small apartment and groaned. Scratch that, there was no way in hell that there was going to be a clean place in this dump. I carelessly dropped my heavy bag on the floor, no longer minding the disgusting crap that lay over the floor, and rubbed my hands together reluctantly. It looked like I had a lot of work in front of me, and that didn't even include the bathroom.

I sucked in a breath and walked over the floor towards the bathroom, stirring and disturbing the dust that had probably sat there for who knows how long. I held my breath as I gently pushed the door open, expecting grimy walls and a slug filled shower.

I let out a breath in surprise as walls and tiles that were relatively clean greeted me instead of what I had expected. I shrugged, grateful for small wonders. I guess that the door being closed greatly helped the state of the small bathroom. I shut the door again, relieved that the bathroom, thank god, wasn't high on my growing list of priorities.

At least I had a week before the semester started.

I tiptoed over to the small bedroom and carefully opened the peeling door, poking my head inside. The bed, bedside table and small wardrobe had all been covered in white sheets to protect and preserve what lay underneath them, but I had no idea whether the items were suitably preserved or not; if I had any luck, the covers on the bed would only be moth-eaten and not dissolve to dust in my hands.

I coughed as I breathed in a lungful of dust and hastily shut the door to the room. I was suddenly very glad that I had arrived early and was even gladder that the apartment was smaller than I thought it would be; at least it wouldn't take nearly as long to clean. Although I was still looking at many hours of hard work to get this dump into something that didn't look like it had been used as a grotto.

I stalked out of the apartment, slamming the door loudly, feeling rather pissed off, which was quite a contrast from my earlier feelings of excitement. That old lady had totally conned me! I scowled. I couldn't believe that I had fallen for something like a poor old lady wanting to sell an apartment. I had asked for pictures of the place before I rented it, and she had obliged, but probably with pictures of what it had looked like 20 years ago. I scowled angrily. God, I was such a fool! She was probably having a private laugh at the stupid, naïve girl who decided to rent the worthless apartment. I fiercely twisted the keys in my hand, as I made my way down the 8 flights of stairs.

I took a deep, calming breath as I exited the apartment block. I may as well walk off my anger, find the local supermarket for some serious cleaning products, and get to work, because there was nothing that I could do about it now. Not to mention the fact that if I tried to sleep in there before it was clean, I would probably end up with some sort of disgusting disease.

…

An hour and a rather productive trip to the nearby store later, my arms were filled with shopping bags of cleaning products, food, air freshener – a lot of air freshener – and bed sheets. I huffed up the stairs and wryly thought that I would have no lack of exercise each day.

I awkwardly opened the door to my 'new' apartment and dumped all of it onto the not-so-clean floor. I rolled up my sleeves and looked around grimly. The only thing that I had to do now was to decide where I wanted to start.

I ended up starting with the kitchen. Everything else could wait if need be, but the kitchen needed to be hygienic. After all, it was where you ate for goodness sake and I flat out refused to get food poisoning. I grimaced. That would not be pleasant.

After stinking out the apartment with the toxic fumes of bleach and oven cleaner, and wiping dead critters and an absurd amount of dust into a dustpan, I deemed that I was finished with the kitchen. The granite bench – that was actually really nice believe it or not – now gleamed and the sink was actually usable. The oven could be used and the fridge actually looked like it could hold food.

I placed my hands on my hips as I looked around the small kitchen, a feeling of satisfaction growing in my chest. The feeling of satisfaction was lost as soon as I glanced at my watch. 16:30. I sighed.

Bedroom next.

* * *

**Wow. I've been wanting to do something with Young Justice for ages, so I hoped that you enjoyed the first chapter of this story. This story will be a slow build romance and will, at some stage, be going through the second season of Young Justice with my OC added into the plotline. So if you decided to stick with this, then get buckled in, because Susannah is going to take you on a while ride into the world of crazy.**

**Have a wonderful day wherever you may be!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	2. Chapter 2

The small apartment was finally clean, and to be honest, I hadn't actually thought that I was going to make it. It had taken 3 full days of cleaning, dusting, and wiping and there were still stains in the carpet that I wasn't overly satisfied with, but I had made it. The dump finally no longer looked like… well, a dump.

The granite bench in the kitchen shone, the new curtains that I had bought yesterday hung, in the window, a light breeze fluttering the blue fabric, and my laptop was sitting safely and dust-free on the small study desk in my new room.

I flopped into the squishy, squeaky armchair and sighed with satisfaction. A glass of champagne would finish this of very nicely. I chuckled. Champagne. As if I could afford something like that after all of the money that I had just spent on this crappy apartment. Now don't get me wrong, because I was no alcoholic. In fact, I was probably the lightest 18-year-old lightweight that has ever existed in the world of alcohol. I mean, the only time that I had ever had alcohol was when I was 16 at a friend's birthday party, and after that, well, I had never drunk another drop of the stuff.

I fidgeted slightly with the sterling silver bracelet that sat on my wrist. It was a goodbye present from my family. I still wasn't sure that I had made the right decision by leaving, but at the same time, I was glad to be on my own. Free to be me and make my own decisions, run my own future… I was sure that I would end up getting used to the constant quiet in my little place eventually.

I contemplated what I should do for the remainder of the day. I could explore my new area, laze around the apartment, waste time surfing the Internet, go window-shopping; the list was endless. I peered out my window. The sun was shining brightly and there were only a few puffy white clouds in the sky. I shrugged. Why not go outside and enjoy the day?

…

I had officially decided that my new area was disgusting. Rubbish littered the streets, and graffiti was plastered on nearly every wall. The buildings were old, dangerous, and falling down and I passed several groups of young kids, laughing, jeering, and holding empty beer bottles. I walked slightly faster and shrunk into my jacket whenever I saw those groups, and made a mental note to never be out late in this part of town.

"Oi! Ginger!"

I breathed in sharply, but didn't stop walking. That voice hadn't meant me, had it? I warily glanced around myself. There was no other carrot haired person around me. My breathing began to speed up and I began to walk more quickly down the remainder of the street.

"Oi! You listen to me when I'm talking to you," the voice yelled, and I heard the sound of running footsteps.

I wrenched my hoody up over my head and started sprinting down the street, not sparing the time to look back. I had no I idea where I was or how on earth I was going to get back to my apartment, but at the moment, there were more important things to worry about. Such as the crazy maniac running after me.

I stumbled over the uneven pathway, nearly losing my footing on the rough concrete and nearly falling flat on my face as I hopped over abandoned crates. I skidded to a stop towards the end of the street, a massive dumpster catching my eye, and hid behind it, trying to calm and quiet my breathing.

Why the hell had I moved to Gotham? My parents had warned me that it wasn't a nice city! I held back a groan and wiped away at tears that were beginning to form in my eyes. I was such a freaking idiot!

"Hey Jake!"

I flinched as I heard the rough voice echo down the street. "You got her?"

There was a deadly silent pause. "Nah, man. She must 'ave fl-fl-fl-flown away like a b-b-b-b-bird."

Laughing filled the street and I shrank further behind the dumpster. A scowl on my face. A group of delinquents. Fantastic.

"I knew that we shouldn't 'ave gotten you to do it. You always stuff everything up! And she was sooo beautiful… with that red hair. Just imagine what I could do with that hair…"

Cackling filled the street once more and I had to press my hand up to my mouth so that I wouldn't start crying for real. I had never felt so grateful for a stinking, revolting dumpster in my entire life.

"You sure that she got away, man?" the same rough voice said.

"U-u-uh huh. Sh-sh-she fl-flew away like a b-b-birdy."

There was a cracking noise and a wail of pain. I winced.

"Wha-what did you d-do that for?"

There was a hiss of what seemed like annoyance. "That's the second time you've failed. _Jake._ If you don't pull your act up, then we're all gonna get it, yeah? Now, for the last time, are you completely sure that she got away? You sure that she's not hiding 'round here somewhere? Like in that dumpster over there?"

I felt my heart stop as fear began to shake my body.

There was another long pause before the footsteps began towards the dumpster.

I jumped every time that I heard his foot hit the ground, and wanted to scream every time that the gravel grated against the concrete of the street. I was shaking so hard that my teeth were rattling together. I screwed my eyes shut, my heart hammering in my ribcage as adrenaline flowed through my veins.

1 step. Another. And another…

"Hey there, little mouse," a voice whispered softly in my ear. I screamed before instinctively punching him in the face. Pain blossomed in my hand and I stumbled to my feet as my attacker tripped slightly.

"You little bitch," he said, grinning madly at me. "I didn't think that you would be capable of such a thing."

He grabbed my hair forcefully and smashed my head into the dumpster. I gasped out in pain, stars dancing before my eyes and a faint ringing tone in my ears as the man dragged me to my feet by the roots of my hair. My eyes were now watering with pain as I scratched at my captor's hands, trying to get him to release me.

"That'll teach you to run," he hissed. I gagged, as I smelled the alcohol on his breath.

I did the only thing that came to mind and kicked him in the balls. The man yelled out in discomfort and instinctively released me. I ran as soon as he did.

My arms flailed wildly as I tried to retain my balance, the world swirling dizzily in front of my eyes. My vision was blurry.

I screamed again, hoping in vain that somebody would hear, that somebody would come. My feet pounded the ground in front of me as I turned the corner onto the next dark street. I leaned against the brick wall of the rickety old building for support, gasping for breath.

My thoughts were frenzied, I had to do something. I had to defend myself! Not sit here like a useless wimp. I took the deepest breath that I could make in my hysterical state and pulled myself together as best I could as tears began to trail down my cheeks, despite my best efforts to hold them back.

I slid down to my hands and knees, my hands running blindly over the ground. It was already dark and the little alley that I had thrown myself into was pitch black.

There had to be some sort of weapon down here, I thought. Broken glass, rubble or something…

I felt it before I found it. The top half of a broken bottle dug into the palm of my hand, leaving a horrible burning and a trail of blood making its way down my wrist. But I grasped like it was my lifeline.

There was a light footstep, alerting me to another presence. I instantly spun around, raising the broken glass bottle with both hands protectively in front of me.

"Don't you dare come any closer," I warned, my voice wavering. I wished that I didn't sound so frightened. "Or you'll wish you hadn't."

There was a light laugh. "Indeed."

The voice was male.

"The _others_ have been taken care of."

"What others?" I trilled.

I saw a slight shrugging movement in the shadows. "The others that tried to… Well, lets not talk about that. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you're safe now." The stranger paused. "And you look like you might need some medical attention."

My hands shook harder. It was safe to say that I didn't believe him one bit.

"I don't know you. How can I trust you?" I whispered.

The figure stepped into the faint light of the moon. "Because I'm one of the good guys. You can trust me, I promise."  
I shook my head violently. "No, I can't." I suddenly dropped the glass, and gave a light yelp as it hit the ground and smashed into small pieces. I flicked my head back to the figure. Although he was standing in the light, I still couldn't see his face. All of my instincts were telling me to run as far away as possible, but I was glued to the spot.

The figure stepped forward, but was still slightly concealed in the gloom.

"Yes, you can," he repeated.

I stepped back, relieved that I my fear had finally ebbed enough to allow me to move. Before he could say anything else or come any closer, I scooted.

I have certainly made better decisions. I mean, I was in an unfamiliar city, in the dark no less, where thugs, rapists and who knows what else roamed the streets and I had decided to run away from the one guy that offered safety.

Yep, I think that pretty much confirms that my decision to run away was completely and utterly shit.

…

I was shivering with cold, had a seriously nasty headache, was drenched to the bone from the sudden downpour, and was seriously regretting my decision to 'explore'. If I hadn't gone out, I thought furiously to myself, then I wouldn't be in this mess right now! And then there was he fact that I had decided to run away from the stranger. I may not have trusted that weird figure with the deep voice and laugh, but I could have at least asked for directions or for a bandage or _something_. I cursed my own stupidity.

I wandered slowly down the street for the sake of my poor head, but didn't recognise where I was. Oh well. At least this part of the city seemed somewhat friendlier. I mean, there was still graffiti and other crap on the walls, and rubbish was scattered everywhere, but it was a residential area, making it feel that tiny bit more welcome and secure.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around myself as I looked at the surrounding apartments. It was time to ask for directions. How embarrassing. Of course, I could not ask, but that would be asking for a night of cold, rain, and hunger, which would suck. Not to mention that then I would still have to deal with the problem in the morning.

I walked slowly up the path to the nearest apartment block that I saw and randomly hit a bell. A voice crackled over the speaker.

"What can I do for you?"

The voice was a woman's.

"Uh, I'm really sorry to bother you, but I'm lost and was wondering if you could help me with directions?"

There was a pause and some background noise. Apparently, they were discussing whether they should let me up or not.

A different female voice answered. "I'll be down in a sec." The intercom switched off and I was left standing awkwardly on the stairs, trembling with cold and dripping with water.

I turned my head towards the door as the familiar sound of a key turning in a lock greeted my ears.

A girl around my age or older with blonde hair was standing opposite me. She had an expression of blankness on her face, but the curiosity and wariness in her eyes was unhidden.

"Who are you and what do you want?" she demanded, as she ran her eyes over me. I took a breath to answer, but she interrupted me. "And if you are just a time waster, then you'd better scat. _Now._ Before you wish that you had never been born."

I just stared at her. Was this how all residents of Gotham treated strangers turning up late at night? Probably. I shrunk back.

"I was actually j-j-just wondering if you c-c-could give me some directions?" I stuttered my way through the sentence, my teeth chattering.

The girl's face softened slightly. But only slightly. "Where to?"

I gave her my address and she gave me a weird look. "How did you end up so far from there? It'll take you at least an hour to walk back."

I almost groaned. A whole hour? I was suddenly hit with a sudden thought.

"What's the t-t-time?" I asked. Blondie glanced at her watch.

"22:30," she said, raising an eyebrow. "You do know that Gotham isn't the best city to be around during the night?"

I looked at the ground and muttered, "I already got that, thanks."

Blondie paused, looked at me, and sighed to herself. "I don't normally do this, so I hope that you're grateful, but if you need, you can stay here for the night."

I took a breath to say thanks, but she held up her hands. "There's a spare bed that you could probably sleep on. But before you even step inside, there is one thing that we need to make clear. Any funny business, and you will wish that you had never step foot in this house."

I swallowed and nodded as she opened the door for me.

"I'm Artemis, by the way, and you are?"

"Uh, Susannah."

She slammed the door behind me, and I jumped. She smirked back.

"Just remember, any funny business..." She left the sentence unfinished.

What on earth was I getting myself into?

…

The shadows loomed threateningly around me and I hugged my arms around my body. Evil laughter was echoing off the walls and I put my hands over my ears in a desperate attempt to stop the dreadful sound. Tears were streaming down my face, but I didn't notice.

"You thought that you could escape me…" a voice hissed. "But you will never escape. _Never._"

I screamed as hands touched me, grasping my shoulders and trailing down my arms.

"Susannah!" I faintly became aware of someone saying my name. "Susannah! You have to wake up!"

I woke up.

* * *

**Hey everyone! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and if you have any complaints or suggestions or good old compliments, then I would be glad to here them! Also, if you pick up any spelling or grammar errors, then don't hesitate to say so and I'll fix them up straight away!**

**Also, here's the disclaimer just to say that yes, I do acknowledge that Young Justice is not owned by me. If it was, then it definitely wouldn't have been cancelled!**

**Oh well, have a nice day wherever you may be! **

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	3. Chapter 3

I was freezing and my head was pounding uncomfortably. The bed covers were drenched with sweat and I was trembling. But with fear or cold, I cannot say. The remnants of the 'dream' were still flashing through my mind, like a movie.

I felt someone lay a hand on my arm and I jumped suddenly, my eyes turning to the person in question.

"Sorry," I muttered to Artemis. "This doesn't usually happen."  
She looked at me carefully. "It's okay. It happens to all of us, but I wish that you had told me that you suffer from nightmares." She smiled slightly. "Then I might have been prepared."

"Sorry," I repeated quietly.  
Artemis got off my bed and stretched. "Don't sweat it." She looked at me curiously. "What did you dream about anyway? I mean, screaming doesn't exactly equal happy."

I sighed and turned away from her, hugging my knees to my chest. "To be honest, I would rather not talk about it."

She shrugged. "Whatever. I'm going to back to sleep."

And she did just that.

Oh, how I envied her.

…

I didn't sleep for the rest of the night and henceforth, woke up in a bad mood the next morning. Change that to a very bad mood.

My hand ached from where the broken glass had cut it, I had a headache that made me feel nauseas and I was bone tired.

I yawned, wrenched the covers from my body and stretched. My whole body burned from last night's ordeal and I was pretty sure that I looked like a complete mess. I glanced over at the bed beside me and saw that Artemis was still sleeping. Lucky her.

I turned the other way, looking at the faded Alice in Wonderland picture that hung on the wall. The sun-drenched colours looked back at me miserably, reminding me of the depressing watercolour paintings that hung in the living room back at my real home in Blüdhaven. For some reason, my mum really like those washed out paintings of old buildings. Although my younger twins and I had protested against them, she didn't budge, saying that the paintings were family heirlooms and that she would be damned if she ever got rid of them. So we kept them, and they were still in the same place, on the same wall as they had been for all of those years.

I shifted again, feeling horribly uncomfortable in the foreign bed. In the end, I just gave up and pulled the covers from my body, letting the cool air wash over me. Artemis, or rather her mother Paula, had been kind enough to lend me some baggy clothes for the night.

When I had first seen Paula, I had immediately felt curious as to what had put her in a wheelchair, but then felt guilty for feeling curious seeing as it was none of my bloody business. That might be a weird combination of feelings, but I knew how much people with disabilities hated being asked stupid questions. They were just like any other human, after all.

I smiled lightly as a memory suddenly came to mind. My best friend, Cynthia, is deaf and she absolutely hated being given any special treatment. She would literally kick someone's ass as soon as the slightest expression of pity or sympathy was evident on a person's face. It was at those times, that I was grateful that I was the only one that could understand ASL, because some of the stuff that she would sign was so dirty that it would make a bad ass criminal cower in disgust. I smirked at the image.

I met Cynthia when I was doing work experience at a special school for kids with disabilities. I had been taking ASL classes outside of school, and my mum had decided that it would be a good idea to refine and test my skills, so I signed up to do some volunteer work after school. On my first day of volunteer work, I saw her sitting by herself out in the garden, scowling at some colourful flowers. I had walked out to her, intending to ask if she wanted anything, and as soon as she saw me, she started ranting about idiots like me who were stupid, how no one understood a damn thing about her and that she hated any kind of sympathy or pity. To this day, I have never seen or hear another person repeat what she signed to me. And through her continuous use of the words like shitheads, bastards, and fucking dickheads, a friendship was born and kept.

And I have never had a better, more blunt, and caring friend.

I sighed and thought that I should probably make a Skype call with her sometime soon. She had been upset as it was when I had told her that I was leaving, but hopefully something like a Skype call would cheer her up. I sat up slowly and put my throbbing head in my hands, yawning widely. I sluggishly got to my feet and padded softly to the bathroom. May as well see what the damage is, I thought miserably to myself. I locked the bathroom door and delayed looking in the mirror for as long as possible before I knew I couldn't avoid it anymore.

My short, carrot-coloured hair was like a bird's nest; curls were sticking out everywhere and my green eyes were surrounded by dark shadows, showing my tiredness. My skin was paler than usual and my freckles looked especially dark. Bruises covered my arms – there was a particularly nasty one that resembled a hand print – and my knees and hand were cut up, but other than that, I was all right. I almost smiled. The damage was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Well, physically at least anyway. There was no doubt though, that I would be somewhat haunted mentally for the next couple of days. But that was nothing that time couldn't heal, I thought determinedly. After all, worse things could have happened to me last night. I fought back a shiver. If that guy hadn't shown up then who knows what could have happened.

I washed my face roughly, grabbed my clothes that had been hung up in the shower last night to dry, and pulled them on. I tamed my hair to the best of my ability, which wasn't very much, and left the cramped bathroom.

The smell of cooking eggs greeted my nose as I exited the cramped room and I felt my stomach grumble as I realized that I hadn't eaten properly in around 18 hours. I wandered over to the kitchen, smiling at the scene of Artemis and her mother together in the kitchen. I must have been longer in the bathroom than I originally thought.

Artemis looked up at me suddenly, as she placed a plate of eggs on the table.

"Breakfast is ready, if you want any," she said shortly.

I nodded absently. "Thanks."

"I can also give you a ride if you need one."  
I looked up in surprise at that comment. Artemis didn't seem like the person who would do things like that.

"Susannah, if I were you, I would take this chance," Paula mock whispered to me, her eyes sparkling. "Artemis doesn't often do that. In fact, she never does that."

Artemis rolled her eyes in response. "Whatever," she muttered. She looked back up at me, a question in her eyes.

I nodded quickly in reply. I wasn't going to pass this opportunity up.

…

"So. How'd you end up so far from your apartment?" Artemis asked casually, but I could hear the undertones of curiosity and wariness in her tone. We were driving through the streets of Gotham now, not far from my apartment.

I shrugged vaguely, not wanting to remember the real reason why. "Got lost in my thoughts I guess."

Artemis snorted. "That was the worst excuse I've ever heard. What's the real reason." It wasn't a question, but required an answer that left no room for bullshit.

I sighed and looked out of the window at the sprawling city streets.

"Got chased by a bunch of good for nothing dickheads." It had been a bit more than that, but I didn't feel like going into more detail than I had to.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," I muttered. "Lucky for me, some guy showed up, or otherwise…" I don't have to finish the sentence to get the message across.

"Did you see his face?"

I turned to face Artemis slowly, wondering why she would ask a question like that.

"No, he stayed in the shadows, but there was this weird laugh when he showed up. It was damn creepy." I shivered as the memory of the laugh rang through my mind.

Artemis coughed and I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Something to say?" I asked.

She shook her head and kept her eyes on the road, but she couldn't hide the small smirk on her face.

"You should book yourself into self defense classes," Artemis said abruptly. "Gotham is a dangerous city and one in which you don't want to be around in at night. I would be careful if I were you." She eyed me out of the corner of her eye. "Especially someone like you. If you like, I can give you the number to a good group that I know about. They practice once a week on a Thursday afternoon from 4-6pm in the gym at the University. It's free."

"Okay," I said slowly. "I'll look into it." Today was a Thursday. Oh dear.  
We passed the local and familiar looking shopping centre.

"You should," she replied shortly. "Like I said, Gotham isn't kind to those who don't know it."

We spent the next five minutes in silence, until she pulled up outside of my apartment block. Artemis craned her neck slightly to see the crumbling building.

"Nice place you got yourself there."  
"I know," I muttered, "but it's all I have, so I deal with it."

I sighed and opened up the car door, but didn't get out of the car.

"Thanks," I said quietly. "For taking me in last night and driving me here this morning."

Artemis just shrugged. "No problem," she said. "But my mum was right. I don't often do this; in fact I never do this. Especially not for someone that I just met. But I saw something in you that reminds me of me. I can't place my finger on it, but there is something there." She suddenly pulled out her notepad and scrawled her number on it. "This here, is my mobile number. If you ever get caught out in the streets of Gotham, just call, and I'll most likely come. But no promises, because promises are stupid and unreliable. Plus, I spend a lot of time in Palo Alto, so I might not be able to come." Artemis handed me the piece of paper, her eyes piercing mine. "So, see you around I guess."

I took the piece of paper and rolled it around in my hand as I got out of the car and closed the door. I stood there awkwardly for a moment before finally saying, "Bye and thanks again."

Artemis only nodded before driving off, leaving me standing on the curb and lots to think about.

I pulled out my keys, walked slowly up the short path to the apartment building and unlocked the door. Unfortunately for me, my small apartment building was on the top floor and there was no elevator. Oh well. At least I would get fit walking up and down all of these stairs every day.

I started trudging up with the stairs. I had a date with some pain tablets.

…

I glanced at my watch anxiously. It was 15:45 and I was standing outside awkwardly outside the University that I would be attending at the start of next week, trying to look like I was supposed to be there. I rolled on my heels, one of my signs of nervousness and looked out at the street. Maybe I should just go home? After all, it looked like no one was showing up anyway. I very nearly turned around in that moment, but something made me stay.

Sure enough, approximately two minutes later, a car drove up in front of the University. I nearly started with disbelief. That was Artemis's car! I suddenly felt suspicious. What was she doing here? Checking up on me? She had better not be doing that.

A red haired man shut the passenger door with a slam and waved to Artemis, shaking me from my thoughts of stalking. She suddenly leant over the passenger seat and then cast an amused glance up at me, before raising a hand in farewell, before leaving. I sent her a baffled look in return.

What just happened? Whatever. I would worry about it later. The red head jogged up the steps.

"Hey!"

I looked up in surprise.

"You here for the class?"

I nodded before following him to my almost certain demise into the University.

Yeah. I'm not really a people person and am most definitely not a person that enters into situations without knowing what was going to be done beforehand. Such as taking spontaneous self defense classes. I nearly groaned. I could not _believe_ that I was doing this.

"So," red head said cheerfully, "the name's West. _Wally_ West."

What? Did he think he was super cool or something?

"Brown," I muttered, as we turned another corner, into yet another corridor. He gave me a weird look.

"Brown? Is that seriously your first name?"

I rolled my eyes and snorted. "Names have to be earned. So, to you, _Wally West_, it's Brown."

"I don't even get a hint at what the first letter could be?" he almost whined.

"No," I said. I changed the subject. "So, how long have you been doing these classes?"

"For a while actually. In fact, I used to be way into self-defense and stuff when I was younger, so these classes just keep my reflexes and strength up. You ever done self-defense before?"

I shook my head. "First time."

"Cool. So what made you wanna join self defense? There has to be some sort of inspiration or something? Maybe a parent, sibling?"

I scowled, shrugged, and looked down at the ground. He was trying to accidentally make me slip my name through some background story. Bastard.

We entered the gym, in which a large, springy gym mat had covered the floor. A loan figure was heaving some sticks onto one of the corners of the mat.

"Hey, Dick!" Wally waved excitedly like a kid, across the room. I looked at Wally incredulously. Did he just call that guy Dick?

Dick (I still couldn't be sure that that was his real name) raised his hand in greeting.

"Hey Wally. Would you mind giving me a hand over here?"

Wally grinned. "You getting weak and sluggish over there, old man?"

Dick chuckled. "You wish."

I stood uncomfortably in the corner of the gym, feeling like I was intruding.

…

His work finished, Dick looked over at the small, red headed girl standing in the corner of the gym. He looked at Wally quizzically.

"Who's she?"

Wally shrugged. "Her name's Brown. Or rather, her last name is Brown. She said that her actual name has to be earned. Ridiculous if you ask me. I mean, who would not want to give their name to me?"

Dick flicked a glance back at the girl curiously, wondering why someone wouldn't give their name. "I'm sure she has her reasons," he said slowly. They most likely weren't good ones, he thought grimly. People didn't introduce themselves if either they were shy or they had some serious trust issues. He looked back at the girl, who was clearly trying to make herself invisible. For her, though, it was probably the first option. She looked familiar for some reason. Something about her figure…

There was a silence between the two friends for a moment.

"So, how's Bruce?"

"He's good. I think." He passed a knowing look to Wally. "But with Bruce I can never be too sure."

Wally scoffed. "That's for sure." He paused. "Anyway, how's your 'other work' going?"

Dick sighed lightly. "It's been hard, especially for the last couple of weeks. The crime rate has been rising like crazy and we have no reason why. I've been interrogating some people in the underworld, but no one's heard or seen anything. It's beginning to get weird."

He looked back over at the red head girl. Some more people had entered the gym now. There really was something vaguely familiar about her, but he couldn't place it.

"Are you sure that we haven't seen Brown before?"

Wally shook his head. "Nope," he said, making a popping sound on the 'p'. "But Artemis seemed to know her."

That piqued Dick's interest. "Did she?"

"Yeah."  
"Interesting. Maybe an old school friend?"

Wally just shrugged. "Maybe."

Interesting indeed, because Artemis wasn't one to make friends. Not to mention, did that mean that Brown knew about their line of work outside of work? Dick narrowed his eyes.

Before it was only a matter of interest as to whether Dick should get to know Brown or not, but now, there was no question about it. He had to get to know her and see where she stood in this entire situation. How much did she know?

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

There were several others here now, thank god, and I began to feel less awkward in the large gym. Wally was still down on the other side of the gym with Dick (such an unfortunate name), who happened to be the instructor.

Lisa, one of the girls whom I had just met whom I suspected to be a cheerleader, told me that Dick was one of the best self-defense teachers in Gotham, but then and again, the way that she spoke about Dick suggested a 'story' that I didn't want to get involved in. I would see for myself whether he was good or not; I didn't need some bimbo telling me what I could find out for myself.

"So, Brown," Lisa hesitated slightly over my 'name'.

I gave a tight smile. "Yeah?"

"Why won't you tell me your name? I won't tell anybody! Honest," she burst out dramatically, crossing her palm over her chest. Good grief. Who did she think she was? Couldn't she leave a moody girl in peace?

"Sorry, but no," I said, a forced smile on my lips.

She looked at me with big puppy eyes and I turned my head away in annoyance.

"Remind me how old you are again?" I finally snapped.

Lisa's expression turned ugly. "Fine, don't tell me your name," she said tight-lipped, "but let me warn you, you don't want to make an enemy out of me."

I scoffed. "Yeah? And what are you going to do? Smack me with your pom poms? Scary."

Her expression turned from ugly to outraged and I knew that I had hit the jackpot. She was a cheerleader after all.

Before she could retort back, however, Dick called us all over to the middle of the mat. During my 'discussion' with Lisa, more people had shown up, raising the number of the class to around 20. Needless to say, most of them were girls. Correction. Starry-eyed and pathetically in love girls. I scowled to the gym mat and wondered how many people here were there to look at the teacher or actually learn how to do self-defense.

"So, welcome back everybody. I hope that you all had a good week. As you can probably see, we have a new student with us this week."

Dick looked at me pointedly and I suddenly realized that I was supposed to say my name.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, I'm Brown. And before you ask, no, that is not my first name."

There were a few chuckles throughout the group, and I saw Lisa whispering in the ear of another girl and giggling. I flushed.

"Alright Brown, I hope that you get something out of this lesson once everyone shuts up." Dick cast a sharp look at Lisa and Giggles, who fell quickly silent. "Okay. We'll start off with a warm-up, so 5 laps around the gym, and no cutting corners. If I see any of you cutting corners, it'll be extra laps. Alright, get going."

People started walking, and then slowly running around the large gym, myself included. I loved running. It had in fact, for the last several years, brought me stress relief from school. There was something that was incredibly relaxing about the even breaths and the constant pounding of feet, whether it be on tarmac or dirt.

"So, Brown, eh?" a man suddenly said to me, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"Uh, yeah," I said, concentrating on the ground in front of me, my arms pumping at my sides. I was so grateful that I had loaded up on extra pain tablets for my head before this class.

"I'm Dan. I would shake your hand right now, but I don't know how well that that would work out."

I chuckled. "It may not work out too well."

Dan laughed lightly in response. We were coming up on the second lap now. "So have you done self-defense before?"

I shook my head. "No. First time."

"Good luck. You might need it."

I gave him a curious look. "Why would I need luck? I thought that this was just a casual class?"

"Well, to some extent, it is casual. But Dick is no slacker, and he makes us work hard. Personally, I don't mind, because it'll prepare me better for what's out on the streets of Gotham and for the rest of the world." He paused. "So you here to stay?"

"Well, in Gotham, yeah, but at this class? I'm not so sure yet."

"Hey! Brown! Dan! No talking while doing laps!"

Dan shot me an amused look and kept jogging and I began to wonder just how harsh a teacher Dick actually was.

…

It turned out that he was a pretty harsh teacher, with not much room for sympathy. The bruises, which I had earned yesterday, were becoming even more bruised and my cut hand, much to my disgust, had opened up again. I kept wiping it on my loose leggings to get rid of the blood with not much success. Oh well, I thought to myself, at least my pants are black. I could only pray that no one else noticed that I kept leaving patches of red around the place.

I looked at the clock on the gym wall; I had been asked to remove my wristwatch because of safety. I was only an hour into this class and I ached all over. But the thing that was really killing me right now was my head. I groaned as I rubbed my pounding temple, swaying slightly on my feet.

We had been made to do push ups, sit ups, and an array of other exercises which I didn't really want to mention, and we were only getting on to actual self-defense now. I mean, I got where Dick was coming from. In order to execute moves properly and to do them to the best of your ability, you actually had to have the strength to do the movement, but still! Did we really have to do so much of it?

Dick began to hand each of us one of the longs sticks that he had gotten out at the beginning of the lesson, and Emma, a girl I actually got along with whispered to me, "This is the best part!"

I, on the other hand, was nowhere near as sure. A stick would mean using my hands, which would mean getting blood on the stick, which would then lead to getting asked as to why, where, when, and how I ended up with a cut on my hand, which would finally lead to embarrassment.

You may ask why I am making such a big deal as to why I refuse to tell anyone about this, but I promise you, I have a good reason.

I grew up in a rough neighborhood, and in an even rougher school, where one quickly learns that if you show weakness, you are literally food for the people with more influence and power. I knew that it was stupid, but it was what I knew.

I came up with the perfect excuse; bathroom break. I would wipe away the blood and stay in the bathroom until the bleeding stopped. I grimaced as my head gave a particularly painful throb. I was definitely going to have to take another pain tablet.

I quickly asked Emma where the bathroom was and asked if she could tell Dick where I was, in case he asked. I dashed off in the direction that she had pointed me, and to my utter relief, stumbled over to the bathroom without getting lost. I opened the door and sank down behind it, relieved at finally getting some peace and quiet.

There were several sinks and I washed my hand under the water of one, watching as the water dripping into the sink turned red. I sighed and grabbed a wad of paper towel, pressing it gently against my hand. Geez, I was so ridiculous. Freaking out over a bloody cut on my hand and a stupid headache. There are so many bad things happening to people in the world right now, and I am worrying over a small cut on my hand and a freaking headache. Fair enough, it wasn't actually that small and it was bleeding surprisingly a lot, but still.

…

Dick, who had been informed of Brown's temporary absence, continued on with the class. He had been teaching the class how to work with a baton for several weeks now, and so far, it had been rather successful. For self-defense, Dick knew that it was important to learn how to fight properly with a weapon and how to use that weapon as efficiently as possible. Dick knew from experience that so many people would find something to defend them with, but then they would have no idea how to use it. At first, it seemed simple enough. Just stand, and whack, but it was a lot harder than that.

For some reason, his thoughts flickered to the girl he had encountered last night in the alley. She had picked up broken, glass bottle, and had just stood there, unable to move, and not knowing what to do next. That was why he was teaching these classes, so that he could teach people the basics and intricacies of defense, and what's more, to teach people to be confident about defense, because once the fear sets in, it never lets you leave from its grip.

His eyes glanced unconsciously towards the clock and he realized that it had already been ten minutes since Brown had left to go to the bathroom. He frowned slightly. She may have bunked, which wouldn't have surprised him, but if she hadn't, it was his duty to see if she was all right.

"Hey, Wally," he said quietly to his friend. "I'm just going to go and check the new member of our class that's gone AWOL. Will you take over for me? I won't be gone for long."  
Wally nodded. "Sure dude."

Dick left the gym in direction for the bathrooms.

…

I sat against the sinks, my eyes closed in exhaustion and my head pounding mercilessly. For some reason, I was suddenly so incredibly tired and I wondered if last nights events had caught up with me at last. It wouldn't really surprise me. I knew that I should probably get up, but I didn't want to. Even though it was the bathroom floor was particularly disgusting and dirty.

I found myself drifting off to sleep.

…

Dick turned to the girl's bathroom block and wondered if Brown was still there. He had to admit, that her not telling anyone her actual name was mystifying, but like he had told Wally earlier, he was sure that she had her reasons. He sighed and pushed the door to the girl's block open.

He expected no one to be there, so seeing the girl sitting on the ground, with her eyes closed came as a bit of a shock.

He stepped quickly over to the small girl, and crouched beside her, giving her a slight shake. To his utter relief, she awoke with a start, her eyes confused and sluggish, before becoming indignant.

"What do you want," she muttered, her words slightly slurred. Dick frowned as his heart rate sped up a little. Something was very wrong.

She had fallen asleep, and was slurring her words, but because of what? Fatigue was a definite possibility and something as strenuous as the class could have easily have finished her off. After all, he didn't know the nature of her home life.

"I can take care of myself, you know?" she murmured. "Go back to your class."

She staggered to her feet, leaning heavily against the sink cupboard, and glared at Dick, her eyes now a lot clearer. "I only fell asleep. It's not some massive emergency."

Dick sighed mentally. He gestured to her hand. He hadn't missed the bloody paper towel near the sink and though he doubted that the jagged cut on her hand had caused her to fall asleep in a bathroom, he was sure that it was definitely a part of a bigger reason. "That needs to be treated properly."

"Yeah, and people in countries in Africa are starving to death, which is a lot more serious. I can handle myself, thank you very much," she snapped moodily. Her voice was clearer now.  
She wiped her hand roughly on her leggings and staggered clumsily out of the bathroom. Dick glared at her behind her back. She could barely even stand properly. Right, if she wanted to play it stubborn, then he would as well. He walked up stiffly to her floundering form.

"You are not entering that gym again until a deal is made," he said grimly. "Either you get me to help you," he paused, "or I drive you to the hospital and a doctor looks at whatever it is that's bothering you. Because you can barely walk and I'll be damned if I let you go anywhere to make sure that you aren't seriously injured."

She stopped walking and Dick heard a faint sigh come from the small girl.

…

I weighed my options. Let Dick help me, which would be uncomfortable with a guy whom I knew nothing about or go to the hospital with said guy, where a doctor would look at it. Not only would that cost me more money, it would be a waste of resources.

I made my decision. After all, my watch was still in that gym, and there was no way that I was walking away from this University without it. Cynthia had given me that watch.

"Fine," I moaned dizzily. "But I swear that I'm just tired. Too many late nights, you know?" I forced a laugh. "You're just making a mountain out of a molehill."

Dick stared at me, his bright blue eyes penetrating my own. I gulped nervously. I somehow got the feeling that he could see through my thinly veiled lies.

"Oh fine," I muttered, guiltily staring at the ground. "I may have fallen down the stairs yesterday and I may have a really bad headache."

"And the cut?" Dick asked. His arms were folded, showing the lean muscle mass that the young defence teacher had, and I was suddenly struck with the thought of just how hot he actually was.

Dark mussed hair, beautiful blue eyes, muscles that most guys would kill for… Whoa, whoa. I stopped my train of thought as my cheeks flushed with colour. I must be more muddled than I originally thought.

I coughed as Dick looked expectantly at me. "I, uh, dropped a glass bottle at home, and wasn't watching when I picked up the wrong end," I lied sweetly. To cover it up better, I added a fake chuckle. "I'm just really clumsy like that."

But it was clear that Dick wasn't listening to my pointless babble. Instead, he was fingering the sleeve of my three quarter t-shirt. I felt a wave of fear. There was a reason why I had chosen to wear a three quarter shirt tonight and it wasn't because I wanted to. I shifted my arm away from his sharply.

"Don't touch me," I snarled, as I stepped away from him like a caged bird. The last thing I needed was for him to see the embarrassing bruises from last night. But he would probably think that I was some sort of abuse victim or something.

There was a softness in Dick's eyes now, though as he said, "If someone is hurting you…"

I shook my head vehemently. "It's not like that at all," I spat. "I just don't need or want you to touch me."

"Okay, okay, fair enough," Dick said quietly, but I could now see the suspicion and – was that anger? – in his gaze. "But at least let me check to see if you have a concussion, alright?"

"Fine," I sighed.

"Come into the light," he ordered me.

I rolled my eyes but did what I was told.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 5

It was suddenly so clear that Dick wondered why he hadn't seen it before. His gaze hardened. This girl was either currently being abused or she had had a nasty run in with someone on the streets of Gotham. He kept his expression blank and suppressed the feelings of rage, anger, and shame that rose up inside him. He was Nightwing so that he could stop things like this happening to people. In a way, he felt like he had failed her.

'Brown', as she had called herself, was still staring defiantly at him, as though she was daring him to say something.

Dick frowned as he looked briefly into her green eyes. They were glazed and unfocused.

He sighed lightly to himself.

"I'm not going to ask any questions about how you got yourself a concussion," he said grimly, "because I know that the story you fabricated before is a lie, but at least let me take you to the hospital."

Brown finally turned her gaze away from him and looked at the floor. "I don't want to go," she whispered. The defiance and indignation seemed to have seeped right out of her. Dick sighed in relief. The thought that something else may have happened to this girl on his watch would have been… devastating. Dick suddenly felt disgusted at himself. Here he was worrying about himself and his reputation, while the girl standing in front of him had been a victim of abuse.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" His voice was now cold, detached.

Brown hesitated slightly, as though she was contemplating to tell him the truth or not. "I have a couple of bruises. But they're nothing."

Why was this girl so bloody stubborn? Dick crossed his arms and glared at her. "Where?"

"As if I'd want to tell you," she muttered. She turned to walk away back to the gym, but Dick grabbed at her arm, stopping her.

"Where?" he repeated. She tried to shake him off.

"Nowhere. Now are you going to let me leave? I upheld my end of the deal, which was to let you look at my head, which you did." She twisted out of his grip and Dick reluctantly let her. She had upheld her end of the deal after all.

…

I walked as quickly as I could down the hallway back towards the gym. Who did he think he was? He was no doctor; therefore he had no right to ask me those questions. Admittedly, the bruises on my ribs hurt more than I cared to realise, but that wasn't any of his business. I stalked back into the gym and headed over to where I had placed my watch. I was so leaving and there was nothing that Dick could do to stop me. I fastened my watch firmly onto my wrist and walked out of the gym, ignoring the stares of the others in the gym.

I pulled on my jacket and kept my head down as I followed the winding hallways to exit the university. The cool night air was a relief from the stifling heat of the gym and I welcomed it. It was still just light in the city of the Gotham, something which reassured me. I turned away from the university glad to be leaving it behind until Monday and began making my way down the street.

"Don't you have a car or something that would save you walking down these streets?"

My body tensed as I heard Dick's footsteps from behind me.

"Piss off," I muttered. I felt his hand on my shoulder and I flinched away from it. "Can't you get a simple message?" I said forcefully, although my vision swam before my eyes. "I'm fine, so please leave me alone."

"At least let me drive you. These streets are dangerous at night, as you have already found out."

I groaned. Good grief, couldn't he leave a girl in peace? Why couldn't he just let it go? But then and again, my apartment was some way away, and a car drive would be welcome. Before I knew it, I had accepted his offer.

I don't remember walking over to his car, but I do remember that the inside of Dick's car was warm, not stifling like the gym had been. It was comfortable and it made me feel drowsy all over again. I was suddenly fighting to keep my eyes open. Maybe a trip to the hospital wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"Hey," a voice said sharply. I snapped to attention.

"What?" I was distantly aware that the word was slightly slurred. God, my head was freaking killing me.

"You have to stay awake. And change of plan, I'm taking you to the hospital. I'm sure that you've got a concussion, not to mention that that cut of yours needs stitches."  
"You can't do that," I protested weakly. "We agreed that you would drive me home."

"I didn't agree to drive you home. All I said was that I would drive you. I didn't specify the place."

I closed my eyes, my head hurting. "Whatever," I muttered. I decided that perhaps the hospital was a good idea after all. I mean, a headache this bad could not be healthy.

…

Dick glanced to Brown, taking his eyes off the road fro a small second. He noticed that her eyes had once again closed. He snapped his fingers under her nose and she fluttered her eyelids.

"What?"

Dick was suddenly at a loss as to what to say. "What's your name? Your real name." Conversation was good. It would keep her aware. She turned to face him and sighed.

"I guess, seeing as you're going to find out anyway, I'll tell you. It's Susannah. Susannah Brown." She turned to look at him curiously. "Surely your name isn't just Dick. Because if it was, that would be seriously unfortunate."

Dick chuckled stiffly. "It's actually Richard. But, I was nicknamed Dick as a child, and I guess that it just stuck."

"Richard, huh? You got a last name then?"

Dick sighed. He had hoped that in her confused brain, she wouldn't ask that question. Not many people knew Dick, but a lot of people knew Richard Grayson.

Dick deliberately changed the subject. "So where are you from?"

"All over. I moved around a lot as a child…" Susannah said softly. She yawned and leaned against the passenger seat, looking out at the passing buildings.

"So did I," Dick said quietly. He was silent for a moment, suddenly hit with memories from when he was younger. The delighted shouts of crowds, the smiling faces of his long dead parents, the country side passing by as they drove from place to place in their circus caravan. He shook himself abruptly out of the painful reminders of his childhood and decided to focus on something else instead. "How do you know Artemis?"

"Huh?" Susannah blinked blearily up at him.

"Artemis?" he said, raising her eyebrows slightly in question.

"Oh, right. That's a funny story actually…" A funny look came over Susannah's face. "You know, I can't really remember. I'm pretty sure that I met her last night, but I can't be sure."

Dick quenched the desire to keep questioning her. He had to know what she knew about Artemis and possibly everyone else. He was sure that Artemis had told no one about her secret identity, but then and again, Artemis wasn't really one to open up about such things.

He made a left turn down to the emergency department at Gotham City Hospital and kept a blank face as he passed various drunks waving bottles and scantily dressed women. It was at times like this that he was supremely glad that he was Nightwing. Sometimes he wished that he had time to himself, time to stop worrying about others and have a day to himself, but as he soon as those feelings would rise, he would push them back down into the depths of his mind. After all, he glanced over at the now sleeping girl in the passenger seat, if it hadn't been for Nightwing, Susannah Brown may not even be alive today.

Wait, sleeping? Dick snapped his fingers under Susannah's nose, but this time, there was no response.

"Shit! Susannah," he slapped her cheeks lightly, still managing to keep the car travelling in a straight line. It was less than 200m to the hospital now. He placed his hand in one of hers. "Susannah, if you can hear me, I want you to squeeze my hand."

…

Blackness surrounded me like a thick warm blanket. It was so nice and warm, like I was in a lovely, relaxing bath. I hadn't had a bath in years, and I vaguely decided that I should have one some time. I wanted to sit in the warm blackness forever, but some annoying voice kept pulling me back up.

"Susannah…" Oh yeah. That was my name, wasn't it? "Squeeze my hand." Why on earth would I want to do that? It was that voice that was being so irritating after all. The voice repeated the same sentence and I grudgingly gave in. Anything for some peace and quiet right?"

I felt hands touching me, and heard the unclear sounds of urgent talking around me. Someone rather brutally shone a light in my eyes, and I blinked sluggishly, trying to make my eyes go back to the way that they were before the rude light had shone in them. I didn't have that much success.

…

Dick sat in the waiting room patiently, reading one of the crappy and out of date magazines that the hospital supplied. He couldn't believe that he was still here. Most of the time, he would if need be, drop someone in front of the hospital and then leave again, but then and again, he was Nightwing when he did that. But this time, it was different. He had an obligation to stay. She most likely had no family living in Gotham, not to mention she probably had no car either…

Dick felt another surge of guilt within him. It was his entire fault that Susannah Brown was now in this hospital. If he had been quicker, perhaps she wouldn't need to be in here at all. His hands clenched around the edge of the magazine that he was holding and leant back against the stiff chair. Hopefully he would receive some news of Susannah's condition soon.

It was several hours later when he did. It turned out that Susannah had suffered a severe concussion and even though there was no evidence of bleeding in the brain, the doctors still wanted her to stay for at least one night for observation in the hospital.

"Would you like to see her?" the nurse asked him kindly. Dick ignored the way that she ran her eyes over him.

Dick thought about it for a second, weighing up the pros and cons of seeing Susannah Brown.

"No," he said shortly. All he had wanted was to see that she was going to be all right, and now that he knew that she was, he had no reason to stay any longer. "But thanks."

…

The first thing I heard was an incessant beeping sound, penetrating through my consciousness. I groaned, mostly in frustration, wondering why it wouldn't stop. I groaned and began to flicker my eyes open. The room that I was in was bright with light and for a moment, I thought that I was back home in Blüdhaven.

But then I realized that I wasn't in my old bedroom, but a large and sparse space. I turned my head from side to side slowly, wincing as it made my headache stronger. There were empty beds on either side of me, and that was when it finally dawned on my sluggish mind. I was in the hospital.

Oh bloody hell.

How the hell did I end up here, I thought furiously to myself, as I struggled to sit up through the tangle of blankets. I fought to remember how on earth I could have ended up in this place, but was completely clueless.

"Ah, Miss Brown, you're awake. I'll just page your doctor." A young nurse in scrubs came up to me, a smile on her face. I simply glared at her rudely, but she wasn't fazed. "How are you feeling this morning?"

I sighed in resignation. "I have a headache," I muttered. The nurse only nodded thoughtfully.

"Well that is definitely to be expected. You did suffer a rather nasty concussion. To be honest, I thought that you were still going to be unconscious for another couple of days, but you've recovered faster than we anticipated. Now then, although you had a serious concussion, the doctors didn't find any brain bleeds, so-"

Another couple of days of being unconscious? "How long was I…" I interrupted suddenly and swallowed nervously, "unconscious?"

"Well, you were brought in on Thursday evening and we're already on Saturday morning, so roughly a day and a half?"

"I would like to discharge myself please."

The nurse sighed, and I got the feeling that she dealt with this all the time.

"Miss Brown, that really isn't advisable. You've had a serious injury and you've only just woken up. And I might just like to say that you were in the ICU for a time as it was." The words were taken right out of the nurse's mouth as a doctor walked into the room, a clipboard in his arms.

At first I was astounded. I had never before in my life seen a doctor who looked, well, so much like a _doctor_. I had glasses with thick black frames and wore a spotless white coat over a set of blue scrubs. He had friendly, but tired eyes and was looking over my clipboard thoughtfully.

I folded my arms. "I insist. I have things to do and I've been in here long enough," I smirked, knowing that he wouldn't be able to force me to stay.

The doctor sighed. "Very well, but I really must protest against your decision. Selena, would you and grab the papers, please?"

The nurse, Selena, nodded her head. "I'll be back in a jiffy," she said cheerfully to the doctor, but sent a reproachful frown at me, walking out of the room.

"Now, Miss Brown, you don't mind if I do a final examination? It'll just be testing your vitals and other functions."

Before I even had a chance to say yes, the doctor shined a light in my eyes. I flinched away from the brightness. "That all looks good," he muttered to himself, before making a note on his clipboard.

Several tests later, he was finally finished. "Well, even though I would prefer to keep you here just in case, you are showing no signs of distress and your vitals look good." He took the papers out of Selena's waiting hands. "If you experience any dizziness, sudden fatigue, or vomiting, I want you to come right back," he said seriously. I nodded as he continued and handed the papers to me. "If you'll sign here and here." I signed the papers, handed them back to him. He gave me a small smile and promptly left.

"What's his problem?" I said to Selena, watching her as she carefully removed the IV that had been stuck in my arm and other tubes and cables from around me.

She shrugged. "Dr. Hards has had a long shift. Now then, here are your clothes and other personal belongings," she said, handing me a plastic bag filled with my items.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Oh, and you might want to go and see that boy who brought you in. He came in this morning to ask about you, but then left again. You do know who he is right?"

Boy? What boy? Then I remembered. His name was Dick, if I recalled correctly and he… Oh god. I gulped and felt my face flush as memories of Thursday night came flooding back. Oh god, how embarrassing! I would never be able to look at him ever again!

"Are you all right, Miss Brown?" I squeaked as I saw a concerned Selena looking into my eyes.

I shook my head, trying to get a grip. "Uh, yeah. I, uh, do know him." Selena handed me my clothes.

"He was quite worried about you on the night he brought you in, you know. He stayed until he knew you were all right."

Huh. Well, that was unexpectedly nice of him. The only thing was… I barely knew him! He taught some defense class that I went to once, something that I had decided never to go to ever ever again.

"Well, how thoughtful of him," I said tightly, grasping and twisting my clothes in my hands.

"Indeed. Well, I'll be off now. Lots to do! I hope you feel better soon."

And just like she was gone, leaving me alone in the hospital room.

…

I breathed a lungful of fresh air as I walked away from the hospital. Oh it was good to be away from that place. The only problem was now, that I had no idea in hell where on earth I was or how I would get home. Well, there was someone who could pick me up, but I didn't really want to call her. I sighed, deciding not to get lost in the streets of Gotham again, and fished Artemis's number from my purse.

I stared at the number written on the small piece of paper and got out my phone. I was going to be owing this girl way too many favours.

"Hi Artemis, it's Susannah, the girl you helped out the other night."

"_What did you do this time?"_

I flinched at her annoyed tone. "Nothing actually," I said a little bit rudely, put out that she would think that I had done something stupid. "I'm just a little bit lost…"

There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "_Fine. I'll pick you up. Where are you?"_

"Right outside Gotham City Hospital."

"_See you soon, then."_ The line clicked as Artemis hung up.

Well, wasn't she talkative?

* * *

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**I hope that you all have a lovely day wherever you may be in this world!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	6. Chapter 6

"_Give me all the juicy details!"_ Cynthia signed to me somewhat excitedly over the webcam and I glared back at her.

"There's nothing to tell," I said rudely, signing out the words to my friend.

"_Oh, come on! A hot dude helped you out! I mean, it sucks that you ended up in hospital and everything, but I think that it was totally cute if a hot guy helped you to the hospital! That is so bloody romantic! You have to tell me everything! What does he look like? Does he go to the same university as you? Are you going to ask him out?"_ The girl's brown eyes were alight with glee and her frizzy brown hair stuck out at all sort of different angles.

I rolled my eyes at her. "No, I'm not going to ask him out because I think that he's a rude idiot."

_"__Oh bloody hell, girl! Don't be so fucking stupid! He saved your bloody life. The least you could do to repay him would be to ask him out."_

"Well, I don't want to ask him out."

I glanced at my watch. I had been catching up with Cynthia for the last hour on Skype, but now, seeing as it was past midnight, I really had to get ready to say goodnight. I had my first day of university tomorrow and there was no way that I was going to sleep in.

"_You have to go now, don't you?"_ This time, her signing seemed to be slightly forlorn. "_I miss you, you know? It sucks not having you around. No one here gets me like you do."_

I laughed lightly. "I miss not having you around too. And what I think you mean, is that no one tolerates you and all your swearing like I do."

This time, it was Cynthia's turn to roll her eyes. "_Perhaps._ _Well, goodnight then," _Cynthia signed.

"Goodnight."

We both grinned at each other before I shut off the connection.

…

_Crunch_!

Nightwing clenched his fists as he turned around to face his partner.

"Do you not get the idea of stealth?" he asked irritably.

"Sure I do," Kid Flash replied, showing the chopped up apple in his mouth. "But I'm hungry. Besides we're only sitting on the roof of some apartment building anyway."

Nightwing could only roll his eyes and look away in disgust. They were sitting on a rooftop in Gotham, looking down at the city below them.

Even though Nightwing usually worked alone, Wally had volunteered to go with him and Nightwing had agreed. He had been distracted of late and had decided that perhaps someone watching his back would be a good idea. It had been a while since Wally had been in the field and even though he had turned away from hero life, Wally had made one exception for his friend. It was something that Nightwing appreciated a lot.

"Quiet night tonight, huh." Kid Flash said thoughtfully, looking up at the sky. "It's a shame Artemis couldn't be here. She would have loved this." Kid Flash looked slyly over to his friend. "Speaking of girls, is there one you can't get out of your head?" Wally wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Nightwing scowled and turned away from his friend. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means. That girl… you know, the one who you dropped off the other night at the hospital and waited around for? You know the girl you went back for and asked about?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get your point," Nightwing snapped. "She was injured and I was just checking up on her."

Kid Flash chuckled. "Sure you were, old pal. Sure you were. So is she still in the hospital?"

Nightwing tensed slightly. "No. She discharged herself yesterday morning."

"Why'd she do that?" Kid Flash mused, biting into his second apple. "I mean, the way you described her… she was in a pretty bad way."

Nightwing didn't say anything and clenched his fists, deciding to keep his annoyance to himself. He hated it when people discharged themselves, especially people who had nasty head injuries.

"Maybe," Kid Flash said slowly, "you should go and see her."

"I don't know where she lives and besides, why on earth would I want to see her? I don't even know her."

"Yeah, but-"

Nightwing had suddenly raised a hand into the air, signaling Kid Flash to be quiet. He was looking down at the alleyway that they were sitting above.

"We have company," Nightwing said calmly.

"Alright then," Wally said, rubbing his hands together gleefully, chucking his apple core on the ground.

The two friends got up from the top of the apartment building and looked carefully over the edges, watching as the thugs began to chase their prey. They heard the girl's cries and pleads echo from the walls of the confined buildings as Nightwing and Kid Flash began to come down from the building, Nightwing swinging gracefully and Kid Flash rushing down the fire escape.

…

The child jumped happily into her father's arms, squealing with laughter, her cheeks flushed with joy.

"Hey there sweetheart," the father said, and kissed his daughter's forehead.

The sun pelted down and the sky was a beautiful, clear blue. The birds were chattering in the trees and people milled around the small park, the voices and cries of children and adults alike filling the air.

I smiled and breathed in deeply, savoring the moment.

It was slow, but the clouds came on quickly. They were grey, large, and threatening. Thunder began to boom, and the happy cries in the park turned into wails of fear. It started raining heavily and I began to run and run. I needed to get back home, where I would be safe, but the rain got thicker until I could barely see where I was.

I screamed out into the grey mass, but there was no reply; the only answer was the rain that pelted down from the heavens. I screamed out again, hoping desperately that someone out there would here me. But there was no one.

I was on my own.

I woke up suddenly, my sheets wet with sweat. I sat on my bed for a minute and closed my eyes, doing my best to calm my racing heart.

"It was just a dream," I chanted to myself. "It was just a dream."

It took me a while to calm down again, but even after I had flopped back onto the bed to try and sleep again, my eyes stayed stubbornly open.

That was my first nightmare.

I woke up again several hours later to the sound of my alarm. I was vaguely surprised. Huh, I thought to myself. I did manage to get back to sleep after all. I yawned widely before stretching and heading over to the small bathroom. This was it. This was my first day studying at Gotham University. I was doing a double major, one in English and the other in Linguistics. Seeing as I had already learned several languages due to the ridiculous amount of moving that my family had done when I was younger, I hoped that the courses that I had chosen wouldn't be too difficult.

When I had first applied to University, my parents had wanted me to go into medicine, law, or engineering, but there was no way in hell that I was doing any of those. Medicine was simply too expensive, law was downright boring and engineering… well. Although I wasn't stupid in the areas of math and physics, engineering had a little too much of both of those subjects and I really didn't want to study physics and math for a living.

So I decided to do something that I truly had a passion for, which was books, reading, and languages. My dad wasn't impressed, but for the first time in my life, I didn't care about what he thought. This was my life, and I was going to be in charge over it.

I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, wondering what I should do with my hair. Unfortunately for me, the colour of it rather resembled that of carrots and it was impossible to work with, even though it had been cut short. I finally decided to pull it back into a small ponytail at the back of my head, wisps of hair already escaping from the hair tie. I sighed, knowing that it would be completely pointless to do anything about it.

As I picked up the eyeliner, my mind flicked back to the disturbing dream that I had had during the night. I could remember every detail as though I had actually been there. The smells, the sounds, everything was imprinted on my mind. I wondered what it meant, because weren't dreams and things supposed to be a reflection on your personal life? Well, I had no social life to speak of, so that wasn't the answer, but there had been that… night 'incident' the other day. But I was pretty sure that that had nothing to do with my freaky dream.

I smiled slightly as I remembered what had happened. Artemis had arrived around 20 minutes later, an amused smirk sitting on her lips and saying that I should be grateful. She, did of course, want to know why on earth I was at the hospital in the first place, so I had lied, not wanting to embarrass myself. I had told her that a friend of mine had recently had an accident and was recovering in there. Artemis had looked me up and down suspiciously, but hadn't said anything, something which I was extremely grateful for. The drive back to my small apartment had been short and before I knew it, I was once again standing on the stairs leading up to the front door. Then she had called out to me.

"You should come to a barbeque next weekend. We all have a plus one, so you can be mine if you like. It would be good for you to get to know some people in this city."

I had thought about it for a split second before agreeing. She had been right after all. I did need some friends in this large city.

My lips turned up marginally as I thought about it again. Artemis was… interesting. She was obviously closely guarded and unrevealing of herself to strangers. In other words, to say that she would be easy to make friends with would be a complete understatement. I wondered why she was so guarded. Perhaps it was her family or past experiences. Whatever it was, it wasn't any of my business anyway and I decided to put Artemis to the depths of my mind.

I stared in the mirror one last time, satisfied with my appearance and walked out of the tiny bathroom to eat breakfast.

The university, unlike on Thursday night, was bustling with people by the time I arrived in front of it. I breathed out and relaxed as I walked into the familiar environment. School had always been something that I called normal in my life, because no matter where I moved, it always stayed constant.

"Hey!" someone called out to me and I turned around, startled, as a figure ran up to me. To my surprise, it was Emma, the girl that I had met at the self-defense class the other night. "Brown, right?" she said, grinning.

I chuckled. "It's just Susannah actually, but I would appreciate if you didn't really tell anyone. I have a reputation as the nameless girl to uphold," I said, my eyes sparking with mischief.

"Susannah," the girl said thoughtfully. "Do you have any nicknames?"

I shrugged. "You can give me a nickname if you want, but not Susie. Definitely not Susie."

Emma beamed. "So what are you majoring in?" For a moment, I was confused. I was sure that she had been going to ask me about the other night and why I had disappeared, but I shrugged it off. I would much rather that she didn't ask.

"Linguistics and English."

"I'm doing chemistry. Hey, why did you leave the other night?"

I sighed. There it was. "I was feeling sick," I said bluntly. "And chemistry? That sounds like fun!" I added false cheeriness to my voice.

"Aw, come on," Emma whined. "Don't change the subject. We all know that Dick left to go and check on you and then take you to the hospital. We were all so worried."

I could barely believe my ears. He had told everyone? Well that was 'nice' of him.

I scowled. I was never ever going to go back to that bloody defense class.

Our conversation was stopped abruptly as someone bumped into us.

"Entschuldigung," the girl said sheepishly. "I mean, I'm sorry," she hastily corrected herself. Entschuldigung? So the girl was German, was she?

"Du kommst aus Deutschland?" I said suddenly, speaking to the girl in her mother tongue. Emma stared at me with her mouth open.

The girl looked relieved. "Ja. Ich bin Janina."

"Ich bin Susannah."

She switched to heavily accented English, speaking now to Emma. "My name is Janina. What is your name?"

Emma still looked flabbergasted. "I'm Emma," she said slowly, passing a look between Janina and me.

"It is nice to meet you Emma," Janina smiled. "Do you know where orientation is?"

"We were actually just heading there ourselves," I said. Janina looked relieved and trailed along beside us as we walked over to the gym in silence, Emma shooting me glances the entire way.

"What?" I finally said. "You keep looking at me funny!"

"You weren't joking about linguistics were you?"

"Why would I be joking?"

"You know… well, you're not really the type of person who looks like they would be bilingual."

"What's that supposed to mean? What do I have to look like in order to be bilingual?"

Emma shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know." She changed the subject, now talking to Janina.

I was still bristling at Emma's comment. Didn't look like a bilingual student my ass.

…

The first day consisted of no classes, but we were given our timetables, had a tour of the university, and had our pictures taken for our school IDs. All in all, it wasn't what I had been expecting at all. I hadn't really met anyone or spoken to anyone except for Janina, who had decided to latch onto me for some reason and after our little conversation this morning, Emma had drifted off into a group that she already knew from school. It was safe to say that I was slightly relieved. In fact the most interesting part of my day was after orientation day had finished.

I was walking down the stairs, exiting the university when I someone grasped my arm. I turned around quickly, ready to tell them to release my arm or else, when I looked into a familiar pair of eyes.

I shook my arm free. "What do you want?" I muttered, keeping my head down.

He shrugged. "I just wanted to see how you were doing after you discharged yourself from the hospital on Saturday morning." I heard a faint note of disapproval in his voice.

"Well, I'm fine. Thanks for asking and I'll see you around. Bye!" I turned around again, intending to walk away as quickly as I could, but Dick grasped my arm again. "What do you want?" I repeated again. "And would you please let go of my arm. You're cutting off the circulation." He relaxed his grip slightly but didn't let go.

"Why did you discharge yourself?"

I groaned. "Because I wanted to. Happy?"

"Not really. You had a serious head injury."  
"Yeah, and? Look, I appreciate your concern, _Dick_, but I am perfectly capable of looking after myself. Now, would you release my arm? Please?"

He finally released my arm and I hurried away, feeling his stare penetrating me from behind. I felt slightly guilty. He had saved my life after all… well, sort of.

* * *

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**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The ballet studio was quiet and empty, which was just how I liked it. The windows were large and airy and the mirrors were polished. Boxes of rosin littered the small corners of the dance studio and a grand piano sat off to one side, the lid closed over the white keys. All in all, it was perfect.

Although I no longer did as much dance as I used to, I still loved it. I loved the fact that it brought me peace, the repetitive movements bringing some sort of order to the chaos that was my life. When I was in high school, the ballet studio was one of the only places where I felt like I could go. I devoted all of my free time to ballet, hoping to drown my sorrows in the music that floated around me day and night.

I smiled lightly as I placed my hand on the barre, feeling the solid and familiar wood under my fingers.

"You are Miss Brown, correct?"

I jumped and let my hand fall from the barre. I cleared my throat and arranged my expression to what I hoped looked composed and dignified.

"Yes. Are you Miss Bailey?"

An amused look crossed the face of the small but extremely intimidating looking Miss Bailey.

"That would be me. Now, are you ready to show me what you've got?"

I paused. When I had talked with Miss Bailey on the phone earlier, I had asked whether I would be allowed to use the free studio that she had from time to time. The only thing that she had replied back to me was that I had to be worthy of using her free studio. So here I was, dressed in loose clothing with tights and a leotard underneath, my pointe shoes grasped tightly in my hand, ready to show Miss Bailey my skills in the art of ballet.

"Let's go," I said firmly. She smiled gleefully and I began to wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into.

"Higher!" she called out to me from across the studio. "What are you? A rock? No! You are swan, taking the first flight of her life! Now jump!"

My hair was falling out and my leg muscles were shaking, but I wasn't ready to give up yet. This may have been the hardest ballet class I had had in a long time, but I was going to see it out to the end. I stood in the corner and prepared myself to go through the combination, planning and seeing each of the steps in my head.

Chasse, pas de bourree, gallop, step, and grand jete. So easy, yet so bloody complicated.

I took a deep breath and started moving through the combination, the steps coming easily to me. My feet slid through the floor on the chasse and stepped lightly through the pas de bourree. I jumped ever so slightly as I moved through the gallop and the step and then felt like I was soaring as I performed the grand jete, and for a second, it was as though I was weightless. My landing was soft as my feet once again connected with the floor, gravity pulling me down. The music that I had been dancing to faded away in the background and I opened my eyes to reveal a highly satisfied looking Miss Bailey.

"Now that is what I call jumping," she said in appreciation. "Now then, cool yourself down, and then we'll talk."

I began to stretch out my muscles, feeling the delicious stretching and somewhat relieving sensation. After the class, my poor muscles had gotten extremely tight, and it was a relief to stretch them out properly.

"You have talent," Miss Bailey said suddenly, walking over to me. "You could easily do well in the dance world, so why aren't you out there right now?"

I stopped what I was doing and shrugged.

"I decided that it wasn't the right career option for me," I replied softly. Miss Bailey nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, you're welcome to come here whenever you like, just call me first. It was a pleasure to watch you dance. And if you ever change your mind about your career path, don't hesitate to talk to me."

I nodded my head once, acknowledging her compliment and her offer, even though there was no chance of me ever doing dance for my career.

"Uh, actually," I said suddenly, and Miss Bailey turned to face me. "I need a job. Would it be possible for me to be able to help teach some classes here?"

Miss Bailey stood silently for a second, and it was almost as though I could see the wheels in her head turning.

"Yes," she said slowly. "That would be fantastic, actually. One of my other teachers just left. I'll send you everything you need to know by email."

…

The nights were getting colder in Gotham and I wrapped my jumper tighter around myself, looking around myself warily. Luckily, I was only several hundred metres away from my apartment, something that I was extremely glad of.

I had been at the dance school for longer than I had anticipated and was beginning to regret going there. Why hadn't I gone there tomorrow? Or some other day when I wasn't coming home at 19:00? I moaned to myself, cursing my stupidity. I had had one night too many on the streets of Gotham and had gone through an experience that I wasn't eager to relive. In fact, I would much prefer it if I never had to think of it again, but I knew that that was impossible unless I hit my head against a brick wall and suffered a bout of amnesia.

I jumped suddenly as I heard a scream echo through my street. My head swiveled around and I stopped walking. But everything around me was silent. I started walking again, but my senses were now on high alert, making me aware of every single sound that was being made around me. I nearly squealed in fright as another scream resonated through the street and that was when I realised that the scream hadn't been coming from further down the street, but from a house.

I gulped as I realized what was happening. Domestic abuse. I put my head down and started walking even more quickly towards my apartment, but I jumped every single time I heard another pained squeal or the sound of glass breaking. I had never felt so relieved in my entire life when I finally reached the comforting picture of my front door. But I had never felt so much guilt either.

How could I stand here and do nothing when there was a woman who was being terrorized in her own home? The truth was, was that I couldn't. So, I made the incredibly stupid decision to march over to the house across the street from where the cries came from.

I didn't know where my sudden burst of fearlessness and utter idiocy came from, but I was pretty sure that I was going to regret it later as I started banging loudly on the door with my fist. I was suddenly overtaken by fear. What the hell was I doing? I had no idea how to handle situations like this! Why hadn't I just called the police or someone?

The yells were suddenly cut off as my knocking was heard and the door opened suddenly to reveal a clearly inebriated, but well dressed man standing in front of me.

"What do you want?" he snarled at me. I almost took a step back as I smelled the disgusting scent of liquor on his breath. Gross.

"I was just wondering what the problem was," I said as indifferently as possible.

"There is no problem," he growled. "Now piss off."  
I stood there for a moment, trying to wonder where my entire attitude had come from. "No," I said with as much force as I could muster. "No I will not 'piss off'."

"Oh yeah? Well, you might want to change your mind sweetheart."

I forced down a shiver. "Uh, well, I haven't and I won't. Besides, you do know, that domestic violence will get you a long sentence in jail right?"

Something or someone pushed me out of the way just in time as a broken bottle was swung at my head.

…

Dick darted in and out of the alleyway, looking for any signs of trouble as he made his way through the neighbourhood. The night had been relatively quiet so far. He had stopped one mugging and chased down some drug dealers and handed them to the police, but other than that, there had been nothing.

So, when he heard the screams and sounds of crashing glass, he knew that he was going to see a little more action tonight. He was quite far away from the house, but because it was so silent, he could hear the cries echoing down the empty street. He frowned heavily underneath his mask. He hated cases of domestic violence. They were messy, not to mention emotionally draining. Why anyone would ever hurt his or her spouse, he had no idea.

The plan had been to break in through the front door and stop the commotion before someone got seriously hurt and make a quick call to Gotham City Police, before slipping away into the shadows once again. In and out as quick as possible was his plan. To say that that plan was thoroughly ruined when he saw the girl who had recently been bothering his train of thought standing directly in the front door was a complete understatement.

She was wearing a warm jacket, something that he smirked at seeing as it wasn't that cold, and her hair was flying away from its small ponytail. The smirk quickly vanished as he began listening carefully to what was being said.

"There is no problem. Now piss off."

"No," Susannah shot back. "No, I will not 'piss off.'"

"Oh yeah? Well, you might want to change your mind sweetheart."

"Well, I haven't. Besides, you do know, that domestic violence will get you a long sentence in jail right?"

Dick stepped in just in time to stop the bottle that was aimed at Susannah's head from hitting its target. She let out a startled gasp as he pushed her out of the way.

"Get out of here," he said in a low voice.

She glared at Dick. "Like hell," she spat, before disappearing further into the house. Oh shit.

…

I had to find the man's wife. If what I had heard outside was any information to go on, this woman could be seriously injured. I was already pulling out my phone from my jacket pocket and dialing 911 when I spotted her, lying unconscious in the hallway.

"Hello? Ambulance please." I told the receiver as much information as I could, trying to keep as calm as possible, even though I knew that I was way out of my depth. If that stranger hadn't appeared… I mentally shuddered, not wanting to think about it.

I knelt beside the woman, dropping my brick phone carelessly onto the floor beside me and tried to recall every little thing I knew about first aid. Thoughts whirled though my mind and panic threatened to cloud it, but I held it at bay. Just. My hands hovered over her nervously. There was a large gash on her head and her blood was flowing all over the floor. One of her legs was lying at an odd angle and I had to swallow the bile that rose unwillingly in my throat at the sickening sight in front of me. I took a deep breath, blocking out the sounds of punches and howls behind me. I grimly hoped that the howls were coming from the man who did this and not from the stranger in tights.

I looked back at the woman and raised a shaking hand to her throat. I breathed out in relief as I felt her pulse fluttering uncertainly underneath my fingers. She was alive, thank God. Now all I had to do was something about this bleeding. Without thinking, I immediately shrugged off my jacket and wrapped the warm material around her body before running back into the kitchen to find some towels.

My eyes scanned the kitchen as I tried to find some sort of material that would be able to soak up the woman's blood. I found a damp towel near the sink and some tissue before hurrying back to the hallway.

When I came back, the stranger in tights was kneeling beside the woman, one of his hands pressing lightly into her wrist. I hadn't had a chance to really look at him before, but now my eyes widened as I looked at him. He was tall and dark haired. A mask covered his eyes and he was wearing a skintight black suit that defined his muscles; a shape of a blue bird stood out on the front of his outfit. For a minute, a just stood there in shock, staring at this guy wearing spandex.

"Hand me those towels," he ordered, startling me out of my reverie. If he had noticed me staring, he didn't say anything. I silently handed them over. He started pressing them against her head. "The police and an ambulance are on their way."

I nodded mutely. "I know. I called the ambulance," I said in a quiet voice.

There was another moment of tense silence before the stranger broke it.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

I almost took a step back at the hidden fury and frustration in his voice.

"Um…" For once, I couldn't say anything.

"You don't know how to handle yourself in these situations. Why didn't you just call the police? You could have endangered this woman even more."

I gulped guiltily before registering his words.

"I was just trying to…"

"Help?" The stranger spat out. "You've done enough of that for one night."

I felt tears prickling my eyes. This was supposed to have been a good night! Now it was going to be spent being berated and interviewed.

"Would you hold these towels? I have to go and be at the front of the house when the police arrive."

I nodded and took the towels from the stranger.

…

Dick was still bristling in anger as he walked away from Susannah. He hadn't meant to get angry with her, but there was something that was extremely frustrating about people trying to play the hero. Most of the time, said person would get himself or herself into even more trouble or danger than the person they were actually trying to save. Not to mention, there was a reason why Superheroes existed.

The loud sound of sirens shook him from his thoughts of anger and frustration and helped him to focus on the situation. He pushed the matter of the unorthodox appearance of Susannah to the depths of his mind. She was a distraction and at this point in time, an annoyance. He would deal with her later.

The tyres of the police cars squealed loudly on the tarmac as they came to an abrupt stop.

"Nightwing," Grace acknowledged stiffly, as she stepped out of the car. Dick smirked lightly.

"Grace," he acknowledged back. He liked Grace. He liked her attitude to her work and her ability to handle things quickly and efficiently; she didn't take any kind of bullshit.

"Domestic?" she questioned, pulling out her ever constant pad and pen.

"Yes. The wife is injured and the husband," Dick paused and scowled for a moment, "he's in the kitchen. The paramedics are on their way."

Grace nodded and scribbled some noted down in her pad.

"Any civilians?"

Dick clenched his jaw. "Just one. She's new around here and heard the sound of the fight from across the street. Naturally, she had to get involved. She's unharmed and is currently staying with the wife."

Grace wrote some more notes in her pad. "We're going to have to interview her too then," she muttered, and Dick was unsure as to whether she was talking to herself or to him.

"Any kids involved?"

"No. The house is too small and there was no evidence of their being any children in the house."

Grace let out a pent up breath. "Good. I hate it when kids get mixed up in all this shit." She turned around and gestured to the officers waiting for her orders. "In you go," she barked loudly, glaring when some of them jumped at her command. "Bunch of rookies," she said sullenly, as she watched them make their way into the small house.

…

I was still kneeling on the floor next to the motionless body of the woman, my hands still pressed firmly on the towels, making them stay in place. I wished that I knew her name so that I could talk to her. But I didn't. It turned out that I didn't know a lot of things. Like how much Gotham sucked. Or when enough was enough. I didn't know when to keep my big mouth shut. God, I was such a naïve idiot to think that I could handle myself in this city and there was nothing that proved that better than what I had done this evening. That stranger in his black suit had been right, no matter how much I wanted him to be wrong.

"Excuse me, miss?" I looked up, startled, into the gentle eyes of a paramedic. "We'll take it from here."

I slowly released my hands from the towels as though I was in a daze and got up, staggering slightly, grasping the wall for support. I nearly threw up as I withdrew my hand from the wall; blood in the shape of my hand had stained it. I needed to get out of here. I needed to escape. And I nearly did, except the stranger in tights had grasped my arm.

"_Geez, do you have to do that?_" I glared at him, before suddenly realizing that I had spoken Russian, my favourite language. Wow, I must have been more dazed than I cared to admit, because I only reserved Russian for special occasions. "Sorry," I muttered, not wanting to look at him.

"The police want to speak to you."

I nearly groaned, and brushed a bloody hand through my hair. It's not as though I actually had a choice. "Okay."

It was about half an hour later by the time I had finished stating everything that I had heard, seen, and done. The police officer, whose name I didn't know, and the stranger in tights, whose name I also didn't know, kept glancing at each other the entire time, and I nearly shouted at them to stop being so bloody suspicious. But finally, it was over and it was nothing but a bad memory as I watched the final police cars drive away.

The stranger in tights however was still there.

"What do you want?" I said suddenly. "Why are you still here?"

He shrugged. "Why are you?"

I huffed in annoyance and grabbed my bag that had been dropped on the ground a bit earlier by one of the cops.

"Whatever, bye," I muttered, before turning away from him.

* * *

**Hey everyone! Here as the next chapter a couple of hours later as promised! To be honest, I never thought that I would ever post 2 chapters in one day, but I did it! So yay! :)  
Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I found it rather hard to write.  
I'm already working on the next chapter, so hopefully, fingers crossed, it will be posted either tomorrow or sometime this week.  
Thanks for reading!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey Guys! So, there's not that much action in this chapter, but it will be changing extremely soon, so don't worry! I wanted to play around with Susannah and her background a bit, so even though it may seem a bit mundane, it is all for a very good reason. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy this chapter! **

**WriteWithFeeling xx**

* * *

The shrill ring of my alarm reminded me that it was time to get up, and I pushed the covers off of myself reluctantly. I was exhausted to say the least. Nearly the whole night, I had lain awake, tossing and turning and unable to get comfortable. So, as a result, I was annoyed. Annoyed, tired, and short-tempered. I groaned and buried my head under the covers. Oh, this was so not going to be a good day.

I finally decided to get out of bed and pulled myself out of it reluctantly, already missing the safety and warmth of my covers. I then showered, did my best to tame my hair, and managed to have some breakfast before walking quickly out the door. I was lucky that this was still the week of introduction or rather 'leniency', or right now, I would be screwed.

I walked to the University quickly, my satchel banging uncomfortably against my side. At least the walk to the Uni wasn't that far from where I lived.

"Hey Susannah!" I looked up in surprise, my gaze trying to find the person who had called my name. My gaze finally landed on Janina, who was racing towards me.

"Hello," she said gleefully. "We still have orientation today?"

"Sort of, today's more about refreshing ourselves with our timetables, getting to know where our classes are and who our teachers and professors are," I said with a smile.

"That is good," Janina paused and examined me with her brown eyes. "Why do you look so, what is the word, unhappy?"

Wow, I didn't realise that I looked like that. I forced a bright and extremely fake smile on my face.

"I'm not unhappy. Just… stressed already."

She looked at me in question. "Stressed?"

"Oh, it's when you get really irritated about something." We walked the next couple of minutes to school in complete silence, both of us contemplating what the day would bring. I didn't have very high hopes. The closer we got to school, the more nervous I felt.

"Can I speak German with you," Janina said suddenly.

I raised my eyebrow. "Aren't you here to learn English?"

"Yes, but… I have to practice German still," Janina protested.

I shrugged. "_Vielleicht_."

She grinned. "Yay!"

She turned around. "_Okay, wer ist das?"_

I turned around and followed her gaze. Dick Grayson was standing in the car park. Oh brilliant.

"_Weiß ich nicht_," I said as nonchalantly as possible. God help me if she found out I knew him.

_"__Mein Gott, sieht er gut aus!" _

A sharp coughing noise distracted us, and we turned around to find ourselves looking at a very annoyed professor.

"I do believe that this is an English speaking school, is it not? Then speak English please!" he barked, before whirling away and leaving Janina and I flushing furiously.

Janina shrugged. "It was worth it," she said, her eyes shining mischievously, and her German accent sounding stronger than ever before. I just rolled my eyes. "Come on. We have to be over at our first class soon."

…

I picked up my lunch tray and slammed it down on the table. I was not happy. I had had linguistics first, and the teacher had been that ass that Janina and I had met in the hallway this morning. When he, saw me, he simply smirked before embarrassing me in front of the entire class. He had spoken to me very loudly and very clearly, as though he was talking to a very small, uncomprehending child, and said that my knowledge of the English language was extremely limited, seeing as I couldn't even speak English in the halls of an American school. I very nearly swore at him in Russian. My new nickname for him was Professor Arschloch (his actual name was Professor Azlotch).

"Hey, what did that table ever do to you?"

I turned around suddenly to face a guy probably a little older than me with red hair. He looked somewhat familiar. He was also, for some unknown reason, grinning widely at me. I shrugged, a fake smile on my face.

"The question is, what hasn't the table done?" I retorted, still smiling sweetly. The guy plopped down on a seat opposite me and chuckled.

"Well, I've bumped into these things more times than I care to say. My name's Wally, by the way."

"Susannah. Hey," I paused as I suddenly recognised him. "You're the guy who helped out at that defense course thing the other week!"

"Yep, that's me. So, why so mad? Bad morning?"

"You could say that," I muttered.

"Susannah!" someone across the room called my name. It was Janina. I gestured to the empty seat beside me and she bounded over to it. Good grief, where this girl got her energy from, I had no idea. Wally looked on with amusement.

"This is Janina," I said to him. "Janina, this is Wally."

He grinned a charming smile and waved at Janina. "That's my name, sweetheart."

"How was your first class?" I asked, ignoring Wally.

"It was okay. There are lots of things I don't understand yet, but that is why I am here. To help my English get better. And how was your first class?" she asked slowly.

"Well that teacher who interrupted us this morning is my teacher. I nicknamed him Professor Arschloch. His actual name though, is Professor Azlotch."

Janina snorted loudly. "Professor Arschloch," she snickered. "That is funny."

I turned to Wally, who looked at us uncomprehendingly. "Arschloch in German means asshole."

Wally chortled before taking a huge bite of his sandwich. "It's about time someone thought up a good name for him. Everyone hates him anyway." He put another almost impossible amount of food into his mouth. "So you're both bilingual, huh?"

"Yeah," I muttered, wrinkling my nose as I saw mashed up food inside his mouth.

"That is disgusting. Don't you have any manners?"

Wally grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," he apologized.

…

Dick glanced around the cafeteria, looking for Wally, before finally spotting him sitting with some others at a small table. He walked over to his friend, skillfully dodging the others that crowded the large, airy room and pulled up a chair.

"Ah, Dick, my good friend, you decided to grace us with your amazing presence!"

Dick rolled his eyes at his friend. That was when he actually acknowledged who was sitting at the table. A dark haired girl was sitting across from him, her brown eyes wide, and… Susannah Brown. Couldn't he ever escape this girl?

"Hello," he said politely.

"Hello," the dark haired girl replied. There was an accent when she spoke the word. He had a feeling that she was German.

"I'm Richard, but everyone around here calls me Dick."

"I'm Janina," the dark haired girl answered. Dick turned his gaze to Susannah with a strained smile, the events of last night still fresh in his mind. She looked exhausted, and he wondered briefly how she was doing. Stupid or not, what she had seen last night wasn't something that was easily forgotten.

"And of course," Dick said pleasantly, "we've already met. How are you?"

She shrugged. "I'm fine," she said, sounding indifferent. Dick eyed her suspiciously for a moment.

"Hey dude, you have to hear the name that Susie here came up with for Professor Azlotch," Wally said, still spluttering slightly with amusement.

Susannah glared at Wally in annoyance. "Don't call me Susie."

"Aw, why not," Wally complained. "It suits you."

"Okay then," Dick rolled his eyes to heaven, "let's hear it."

"Professor Arschloch," Wally guffawed loudly. "Which is German for asshole."

Dick let the corners of his mouth tilt up slightly. He had to admit that that was clever.

"Everyone's been trying to come up for a good, or bad, nickname for him for years, but I have to say that that one is pretty good." Dick bit into his own sandwich. "So where are you from Janina?"

"Germany," she replied.

"Do you miss it?" For a moment, Janina looked taken aback, as though she wasn't expecting a question like that.

"I miss my family," she said. "I call them…" she struggled for the words and turned to Susannah. "_Wie heißt häufig auf Englisch?_"

"Frequently," Susannah answered. Dick's eyebrow rose slightly. So she spoke German as well as Russian. Interesting.

"I call my parents frequently," Janina said confidently. "I miss them a lot."

Dick nodded absently. "I'm sure you do."

"So do you guys do anything after school, like, I dunno, swimming or something?" Wally asked curiously. "Because if you're free, Dick and I run a self-defense class after school on Thursday's in the gym. It would be great of you could come along. After all, self-defense is really important. Especially in this city."

Janina's eyes lit up. "That sounds fun." She nudged Susannah. "We should go."

Susannah shrugged. "I don't know whether or not I'll have time. I still have to receive some details about a new job I'm taking on, and I don't know the times when I'm needed yet."

For some reason, Dick felt a slight amount of disappointment well up inside him. He had hoped that she would give it another shot. After all, she hadn't really done anything at last week's lesson anyway.

"What job?" Wally asked conversationally.

"Dance teacher."

"Awesome! You dance?"

"Yes Wally," Susannah said exasperatedly. "That's why I'm taking on a job as a dance teacher!"

Wally looked impressed. "Seriously awesome." He took another large scoop of food and shoved it in his mouth. "That is seriously cool," he said again through a mouthful of food.

Dick sighed. He had no idea how Artemis put up with Wally's eating habits.

"You already said," Susannah muttered.

"You don't like being around people much, do you?" Dick said suddenly.

Susannah stared up at him. "It really depends on who I'm around." She sighed and Dick saw something resembling resolve show in her eyes. "You know, I never said thank you for the other day, so I guess, thank you for getting me to a hospital and making sure that I didn't die."

"I'm going to go and get some more food," Wally said suddenly. "Would you like to join me Janina?" Wally waggled his eyebrows. Janina smiled shyly and got up from the table, but still shot a look of curiosity at Susannah as she walked away.

"I know I didn't come across as grateful before, but I really am, so thanks."

Dick was quiet for a moment, thinking about what he was going to say next.

"Well, I don't like it when people die on my watch. I also don't like it when the people that I save discharge themselves." He watched Susannah poke at her food some more.

Susannah flushed. "Sorry about that. It's just that hospitals... well, they really suck."

They were both silent for a moment. "Um, I don't want to be late for my next class, so see you later I suppose." She pushed her chair away from the table and grabbed her tray of half eaten food from the table. Dick watched her walk away thoughtfully.

…

God, that had been so embarrassing! I could still feel my hot cheeks from a couple of minutes ago. I supposed that perhaps he wasn't the asshole I originally thought he was, but I still didn't like him. I glanced down at my wristwatch. Technically, right now, I had a free, but Dick didn't need to know that, so I had decided that I would go to the library to check my email and see if Miss Bailey had written anything back to me yet.

The library was nice. It was large and quiet with several computers, study tables and rows and rows of books. In short, it was like heaven for me, and I couldn't help smiling as I made my way into the peaceful place.

I sat down at a random table near the back of the library and took out my laptop. We had all been given the password to the University's Internet the day before and I had already hooked my computer up to it. I immediately logged into my email account and scrolled through the couple of emails that I had received throughout the day. There was one from my parents and another in the Cyrillic alphabet from one of my Russian friends from when we had lived there. And then I found the one I was actually looking for. I had one from Miss Bailey. It had been sent early this morning and contained all of the necessary information that I would need. My eyes scanned the email quickly. I would be needed, it turned out, this afternoon, for a Beginner's class for 14 years and up, Wednesday evening for some more Beginners' classes and on Friday for a Beginner's and Intermediate pointe class. But despite all that, the end of the email was what caught my attention the most. Miss Bailey had recommended me doing a Pas de Deux class. I gulped. I hadn't ever really attempted Pas de Deux, except for a short class a couple of years ago, which turned out to be disastrous. And I mean extremely disastrous. I looked at the timetable that Miss Bailey had also rather 'helpfully' supplied and groaned. The Pas de Deux class was tonight.

…

I stumbled slightly down the stairs. English Literature had been my last class of the day, and to be honest, it had been as boring as hell. The teacher seemed like she was very nice, but she just droned on and on about pointless stuff like what she expected from us, what we were going to study and a whole lot of blah that I tuned out to. I swear that by the time the class had ended, everyone had fallen asleep.

"Hey Susannah," a voice beside me smirked. I jumped and scowled at the culprit.

"Wally," I muttered sourly.

"You haven't, by any chance seen my girlfriend? She's tall, blonde, got a snarky attitude?"

I raised my eyebrows and crossed my arms. "What makes you think that I've seen her, let alone know her?"

"Because you've already met her," he said gleefully. Wait, what? No I hadn't. I barely even knew Wally. I didn't even know that Wally had a girlfriend! How on earth was I supposed to know who she was?

"Hey Wally," a somewhat familiar voice called through the crowed of bustling students. I turned around to see Artemis walking through the crowd with an unusually soft look on her face.

I looked at them in confusion before it dawned on me.

"You're Wally's girlfriend?" I said in bewilderment.

Wally smiled proudly and placed an oddly tender kiss on top of Artemis's head. "Yep. That she is."

Artemis simply rolled her eyes. "And how are you, Susannah?" she asked, looking me up and down. "Is the friend you visited in hospital the other day better?"

For a moment, I had no idea what on earth she was talking about, before I suddenly remembered. Oh God. Don't show that you're lying, I thought to myself. Don't show it, don't show it, don't show it.

"Oh, yeah. She's good now," I said, slightly flustered.

"You never told me why she was in the hospital in the first place," Artemis replied casually. She gave me a sharp look.

"Pneumonia," I said as smoothly as I could manage. "It was an unusually bad case."

I could tell that she knew I was lying, but lucky for me, she didn't say anything.

"Are you going to come to the barbeque this Saturday?" Artemis asked suddenly. "For a bit of a meet and greet? I'll pick you up at 15:00."

I thought about it for a moment. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about the barbeque that she had invited me to. I made a split second decision.

"Yeah, actually," I said. "I'm coming. And a lift would be great." I looked at my watch and blanched. "I have to go, but I guess I'll see you around?" I gave a small smile before leaving quickly.

…

"I like her," Artemis said suddenly to Wally as they exited the University campus. "She can't lie for shit, but I like her. I think that she's got guts. Plus, I get the feeling that she doesn't put up with any crap."

Wally chuckled and wrapped his arm around Artemis's shoulder. "She sounds just like you."

"Ha ha," Artemis grumbled, but she leaned into Wally's arm all the same. "I can see why Dick finds her interesting; she's a fighter. She might not be able to fight with her fists, but I get the distinct impression that she can fight in other ways."

…

The 14 years and up Beginner's ballet class had sucked. The girls were loud and obnoxious and had pretty much all turned their noise up at me, simply because I was only a little bit older than they were. They kept making snide comments throughout the whole beginning of the class about the fact that I wasn't an actual teacher and that I couldn't actually dance ballet. I smirked as I remembered the class. Oh, I had shown them. They wouldn't be such brats in their next class with me.

There was a noise in the corner of the studio and I was shocked from my thoughts as the door suddenly opened to reveal a tall, gangly, blonde haired boy. He smiled at me somewhat nervously from across the room and dropped his bag on the floor.

"Are you Susannah Brown?"

Huh, he was English. Fancy that. I gave him a small smile in return.

"I don't see anyone else around the room, so I guess that it's me. And you are?"

He cleared his throat. "Ethan Lale. Nice to meet you. I'm also assuming that you're going to be my pas de deux partner?"

"Yep."

I sat down on the floor and started pulling on my pointe shoes, tying the ribbons firmly around my ankles.

"Have you ever done any pas de deux before?"

I finished knotting my ribbons. "Just a little bit, but it was rather disastrous."

He smiled warily, looking alarmed. "Well I've only done a little bit, but I need to be able to do a lot more if I want any chance to do ballet as a career."

The door slammed shut and we both jumped as Miss Bailey walked into the room, a big smile on her petite face.

"Right," she crowed loudly, "are you two ready to do some work?"

By the end of the class, we were both panting hard and sweat was beginning to soak through our clothes. I peeled off my pointe shoes, grimacing slightly when I saw that a blister had burst. Damn.

"You're a good dancer," Ethan said suddenly from across the room. I smiled briefly at him.

"Thanks."

"No, seriously. You'd do well in the dance industry. Why don't you want to follow it?"

I looked sharply at him, before deciding that he was just asking a harmless question. I pulled on my shirt over the top of my leotard and shrugged.

"I guess that I decided that it's not the place that I want to be."

Ethan nodded slowly. "Fair enough." He smiled again. "Anyway, I look forward to our next session, so see you next week on Tuesday I suppose?"

"Yeah, bye." I gave him a small wave before he walked out of the studio. He seemed like a nice guy.

I snorted. Well, he would have to be if he was going to be my pas de deux partner seeing as we would probably get into some really awkward positions during some of our classes.

…


	9. Chapter 9

I huffed down the street next to a chattering Janina. Why the hell was she so happy? It was only a defence class after all. But then and again, from Janina's point of view, this class wasn't just any defence class, but a defence class with Dick Grayson, the guy that she had literally been ogling all week, as the teacher. God help me.

I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered slightly, tuning myself out to Janina's endless talking. Did she ever stop? I admit that Janina was a very nice person, but at the same time she seemed… a little shallow. But then and again, perhaps 'shallow' wasn't the right word to use.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, distracting me. I fished it delicately out of my pocket, not caring to glance at the number that flashed up on the ancient Nokia's screen.

"Hello, Susannah Brown speaking."

"Hey sweetheart!"

I nearly dropped the phone in surprise as the familiar voice echoed gently in my ears. "Hey Mum," I said cautiously. "What's up? I called you only two days ago. Are you okay?"

I heard a sigh and I gulped. This couldn't be good news. "_I just wanted to hear your voice._"  
"Mum, why are you speaking Russian to me?" I was beginning to panic now. My mum only used Russian with me when she was worried about something or when she was sick. It was sort of like our own code language for when something was wrong.

"_Because I don't want your father to hear me. He's got so much on his plate right now that I can't…_

"_You can't what, mum? He's your husband and I'm your daughter! Is this about your cancer again, because if it is, you should get yourself to a doctor right now instead of talking to me!"_

_"__It isn't the cancer, sweetheart. I guess… I'm just missing you."_

My heart rate started to calm down again. "_I miss you too, mum. Are you sure that nothing's wrong?"_

"Nothing's wrong sweetheart," she replied.

"Okay then," I said suspiciously, as Janina and I arrived at the now familiar University entrance. "Well, I guess I'll talk to you later. Love you."

"Love you too."

I snapped my phone shut, pondering the odd phone call. Why had she sounded so off? I would definitely have to phone her later and find out what was happening.

"Who was that?" Janina asked curiously.

"My mum," I said with a small smile.

Janina sighed. "I should ring my parents soon. They will probably be worried."

"Hmmm," I replied vaguely. I gave a sudden bright smile. "Now, are you ready for this bloody defence class?"

Janina scowled and folded her arms. "It is not a 'bloody' defence class. It will be good for us. What do you have against it?"

I shrugged. "Nothing." Nothing but the teacher, I added silently.

"Hey Nina! Suzie!"

I sighed. Why did he have to keep calling me that? Wally jogged lightly up to us, a big smirk on his face, and an extra large chip packet in his arms.

"Please don't call me Suzie."

Wally stuffed a hand full of chips into his mouth. Did he ever stop eating?

"No can do. The Wallster has christened you as such, and you shall remain forever 'Suzie'," he finished dramatically.

"Were you ever taught manners?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

"No, he wasn't," another voice said. "Unfortunately, he's been this rude since day one, so you should probably get used to it."

"Hey Arti," Wally said grinning, pulling her in for a tight hug. "Where's Dick?" He kissed her head.

"He couldn't make it today, so I'm here instead," she said, her voice slightly muffled by Wally jacket. I didn't miss the disappointed drop of Janina's shoulders.

…

I was sweating uncomfortably, my once loose clothes sticking to my body. Good grief, if Artemis worked us all any harder, we wouldn't even have to energy to dig our own graves; we would simply drop dead onto the floor. We had done masses of cardio and basic but grueling exercise and we had only just moved onto defence moves.

"Come on! Move it! Pick it up Brown!" Artemis barked at me. I groaned and got back into the starting position, ignoring my body's cries for rest. I had, with my extremely bad luck, been partnered with possibly the fiercest, terrifying, and kick-ass girl I had ever met and we still had half an hour of this class left.

"A killer on the streets wouldn't let you hesitate, now move it!"

I surged forward into action, moving my forearms up to block as I saw her fists coming at me. I felt and ignored the brutal sting as my flesh met hers, and dodged out of the way as she came back for another shot. My heart was beating frantically as adrenaline pumped through my veins and I managed to spin out of the way just in time as one of her legs came swinging at my torso in a wide arc. I swiftly rolled to the ground, only to be met with Artemis's legs on either side of me and her fist poised at my throat.

Damn. I scowled and allowed her to help me up.

"Not bad. I mean for a beginner anyway. You still have a long way to go, but if you keep coming every week, we might be able to make something out of you."

I skeptically raised my eyebrow at her. "Sure," I muttered. The fight, if you could even call it that, had barely lasted 10 seconds.

"You dance, right?" Artemis said to me suddenly.

"Yeah," I said slowly. How did she know that? I hadn't told her… but then and again, I had told Wally and Dick the other day.

"You should use that to your advantage. Most muggers and robbers will come out you because they're physically big and because they believe that they can overpower anyone or anything that is smaller than they are. But that's not true. Just because you're small, doesn't mean that you're not powerful. So, you should use your agility and flexibility to your advantage."

I mulled over Artemis's words as I saw her go over to a couple of the other pairs. Her words had been … wise.

As I watched Artemis correct Janina, I began to wonder how Wally, Dick, and Artemis actually met. They were obviously all fighters, because otherwise they wouldn't be teaching this class. Perhaps they had all done defence or something similar when they were younger. But something told me, that they had fought more than 'practiced' fights. They had been out in the real world and had fought the real bad guys, and of that, I was pretty damn sure. After all, no one spoke the words that Artemis just said to me if they hadn't already seen what the world had to offer.

But still, it didn't really make much sense. I mean, they are only my age after all. How much could they already have accomplished at 18 or 19?

I was shaken from my thoughts at Artemis's yell.

"Come on, Brown! Don't just stand there! Do something! Just because your partner is busy at the moment doesn't mean that you get to slack off!"

…

"You know," Wally said slyly. "I reckon that Susie could do really well if she keeps coming to the classes every Thursday."

Dick groaned from the other side of the line. "Why does everyone keep mentioning her or making hints about her? I've only known her for a week, which, by the way, is nothing!"

"Whatever you say, Dick," Wally said with a grin. "So, how was dinner with Bruce?"

"Ugh, don't remind me. It was awkward. We talked, Wally, we actually talked about normal things. The problem was, was the way that we were actually talking about these normal things. It was horrible. I mean, it's nice to be with Bruce and everything, especially since these days he's so busy."

"But…" Wally said. "Come on, dude, I know that there's a but!"

Dick sighed. "But, when it comes to normal things that have nothing to do with the cape and cowl, he's dreadful."

"This, man, is why you need a girl in your life. Come on! You're 20 now! You need to pick up a girl and get laid."

"Wally!"

Wally shrugged. "What? It's true. You're so stiff and uptight all the time and you haven't been on a proper date in years! Why don't you give the German girl a try? She seems to have the hots for you."

"Geez Wally, can you ever be serious?"

"Dude, I am the bomb at being serious! And I am being perfectly serious right now. You need to stop moping, find a girl, get laid and start having little babies together so that they can distract you!"

"Oh God. I can't believe that I'm having this conversation with you right now. And besides, I don't need any distractions!"

"Yes you do. Look, a couple of years ago, you told me and I quote, 'if I ever start acting too much like Bruce, then do everything in your power to stop me from becoming him.'"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, you said something similar along those lines anyway."

There was silence. "Do you really think that I'm turning into him?"

"If you want the truth, then I'd say yes. You're beginning to push everyone away, Dick, and everyone's beginning to get worried!"

There was another pause. "Fine."  
Wally's mouth began to lift into a smile. "Fine what?"

"I mean, fine, I'll take someone out on a date."

…

As soon as I closed the door to my apartment, I booted up my laptop. It was time to do some research on Gotham City and on whom or what guarded its streets. I shrugged off my coat and put it roughly on the hook behind my bedroom door and began to make a mental list of what I already knew.

I knew that there was some dude who called himself Batman and dressed up in a coat and a mask and paraded and protected the streets of Gotham. I also knew that there were others like the Batman. For instance, that guy who had appeared at the domestic the other day who wore black with the insignia of some blue bird on the front of his outfit. I wondered if he had a name in Gotham…

I added 'Google weird guy with blue bird on front of black outfit' to my mental list.

I picked up some leftovers from last night's dinner and put them in the noisy old microwave, watching absently as my dinner whirled around and around in a continuous circle, the bland colours swirling into each other.

A weird feeling suddenly settled over me and I shook myself out of watching the food in the microwave, glaring at it suspiciously.

"Oh good grief," I muttered to myself. "I am becoming way too tired and paranoid." The microwave dinged, signifying that it was finished, and I walked over to it slowly, now thinking about the odd phone call that my mum had given me earlier.

I gasped. "Mum!" I was going to phone her after I the class! I checked my watch. Good, it was still early enough for me to call her; she liked to go to bed early these days.

I dialed her number quickly into my phone and waited for the connection to link up, tapping my fingers impatiently on the bench, my food now forgotten.

"Sweetie? What's up?" her voice sounded in my ear and I grinned unconsciously.

"Hey mum," I said cheerfully. "How are you? Sorry I couldn't to talk to you properly earlier, but I'm free now, so what's up?"

There was another short silence on the end of the line. "Well, to be honest, nothing's going very well at the moment."

"Okay," I said slowly. "And what do you mean by that?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about earlier… Honey, your father… well he's lost his job."

I gulped. Uh oh. This wasn't good. "Is he searching for another job?"

"Yes," my mum replied softly. "But we're not having much luck. We're looking overseas again."

Oh dear.

"As soon as he finds a job somewhere, then we're going to move to wherever that job is."

"How long ago did he lose his job?" I demanded.

"Just after you left. We didn't want to tell you because we knew that you would've tried to stay and help."

"Yes! That's exactly what I would've done! I've only been gone a week and a bit, so I can still make arrangements to come home…"

"No," my mum said sharply. "You will not be leaving. You have just started a new chapter of your life, and if you leave it now, then you won't go back. I know what you're like, Susannah, even if you won't to admit to it yourself. So no. I forbid from coming back."

"Fine," I muttered sullenly. "But I'm going to be sending you some of my money, and don't protest, because I know that you guys will need the money."

My mum sighed and I smiled in victory. I knew that she would need the money. "Fine, but only a little bit, alright? I'm sure it won't be long until he finds a job."

"That may be so, but still. If it takes several months, you guys aren't going to be able to live!"

"Oh come on, Susannah, don't be so dramatic. There's still just enough money in the bank to get us through for at least 3 more months, and by that time, your father will have a job."

"Okay," I muttered uncertainly. "Look, I have to go now, but I'll talk to you tomorrow. Love you."

"Love you too, sweetie."

I hung up the phone. Why did life have to be so complicated?

My phone started buzzing again in my palm. I sighed and raised it to my ear, not bothering to check the number.

"Hey Susannah!"

It was Janina. Oh goody.

"Hey," I said tiredly.

"Try and guess who just called me!"

"Uh, I dunno. Your parents maybe?"

"No," she said, giggling. "It was Dick Grayson! He said that he would like to, how do you say it, go out on a date with me?"

Wow. I was not expecting that at all. "Good for you," I said to her, genuinely happy for her. It's not as though I had any feelings for Dick anyway, except ones of distrust and annoyance. Well, that's what I told myself anyway. Oh come off it, I told myself sternly. You've only known him for like, a week! How can you have feelings for him?

Oh well. At least Janina had some good luck in this world.

* * *

**Hey guys! Sorry that the chapter's a little late this week, but I shall make up for it! The next one is nearly finished already, but I might have to change it, because it's getting rather dark, and I don't really like dark things that much. Well, dark things are alright, but too much can just drag a story down. But, if you guys don't mind the darkness, then I shall keep going on the path that I am on!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey everyone! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well!  
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. The next few are already done and dusted and should all be posted real soon. For some reason, I was a bit apprehensive about this chapter, but in the end I was just like, 'screw it'. So here it is!**

* * *

_4 Months Later_

"Hi, this is Susannah from the Apple Retail Store in Gotham. How can I help you today?" I said politely to the customer on the other end of the line. God, I hated my new, or rather, extra job.

I listened to the customer ramble on a bit about how he just dropped his iPhone and that now the entire screen had cracked and blah blah blah, etc etc etc.

"Yes sir. You can send your phone or bring your phone to the Apple store located here in Gotham city, and we will be able to repair it for you."

"Thanks! I was getting really worried there for a sec. I'll be coming by later today."

"Alright then. Thanks for the call and goodbye."

"Bye!" the man said gleefully, before hanging up. I rolled my eyes.

I slumped behind my work desk, watching the people of Gotham walk in and then out of the shop, looking at this and touching that. I stifled the yawn that I felt coming and pinched myself hard on the arm, doing my best to stay awake. It was now 4pm on Sunday afternoon, and in an hour, my day would finally be finished. All I would have to do would be to get on one of the crappy buses and then walk back to my crappy apartment. My eyelids began to grow heavy thinking about home.

"Oi, Brown!" my boss, Tate, barked at me. "No falling asleep! Do you see how many customers are walking absently through this shop? Do you? Well, in my opinion, they look like they could use some help." He glared at me. "So get moving!"

"Yes, sir," I said. "I'm going right now. See look, I'm already gone."

I saw him roll his eyes out of the corner of my eye. He might seem tough, but he was a big softy, especially when it came to his staff.

I mingled with some of the customers, asking if people wanted or needed any help with anything. After ensuring that everyone had attended to, I wandered back to the cash register, my thoughts wandering.

3 months, my mum had said, I thought sourly. 3 months! My dad, unfortunately, still hadn't found a job, and it was only because of me that my family was still receiving any money at all. At first, it had started with just a small amount being sent over to cater for extra things here and there and to help out with any extra costs. My mum had said to me 3 months ago, that they still had just enough money in the bank to last them 3 more months. Well, 4 months had passed, and my family was completely broke, with absolutely nothing in the bank. They had applied for financial support, but their files and documents were still being processed.

Slowly but surely, the money that I started to send over to them began to get larger and larger, until I had to take on a second job, because the money that I got from the dance school simply wasn't enough any more. So here I was at the Apple Store in Gotham city. I was sleep deprived, crabby, and tired. So tired… All of this extra crap that I was doing was really taking my time away from studying, which I was now being forced to do in the middle of the night. God help me.

"Hey Susannah."

I turned suddenly, only to see Tate standing next to me, an unusually concerned frown on his face as he studied me.

"Why don't you go home early today? It's pretty much the end of the working day anyway. Besides it looks like you could do with some sleep."

I nearly hugged him. "I am definitely going to take you up on that offer, Tate."

"And…" he sighed. "Look, have you been eating? Because, I swear, every time I see you, it's as though you're even skinnier than before. I know we haven't known each other for very long, but as your employer, it's vital for me to know whether or not you're coping with work and the stress of school."

I smiled at him wanly. "Don't worry. I'm managing it all just fine. I just haven't much of a chance to sit down and eat properly for a while. Well, anyway, thanks for letting me go home early, boss. See you next time and have a nice night!"

And before he could say anything else to me, I had picked up my few things and left.

…

"So, I think we're going to go for the next step," Janina said to me breathlessly, her eyes bright with excitement. The relationship between them was, to my and everyone else's surprise, still going on strong, although in my opinion, Dick didn't seem to be as into it as much as Janina did.

I smiled at her. "That sounds great."

"I know right!"

I chuckled lightly. Janina's English had improved a lot. So much in fact, that she was now using a whole bunch of slang as well. I twiddled the menu in my hands, deciding to have the Day Special, which was some kind of chicken thing.

"Actually, I invited him to our dinner to night, so I hope that you don't mind." My smile froze in place for a moment. Couldn't I have any alone time at all without Wally or Dick or Artemis, being there? They were nice and all, but they were… how should I say it? Inquisitive? Curious? Concerned? Anyway, whatever it was, they kept annoying me all the time with the same questions; "Are you okay, Susannah?" "You look skinnier. Are you eating?" "Maybe you should stop working for a bit and relax." God, it was so annoying! I was fine, obviously. I was eating, when I got the time. And stop working? Ha! As if I could stop doing that! I hate to think what they would start doing if they knew that I had a second job. Even Janina didn't know about my new job at the local Apple Store.

"Uh," I said in a strangled voice. "Sure, I don't mind." It's not as though I hated them, because I didn't, I just wish that they would stop bothering me.

"Yay! Because here he is right now."

…

Dick searched the small, but cosy restaurant for his girlfriend. When he had first asked Janina out on a date, it had been more to appease Wally. But once he began to get to know Janina, his opinions of her changed. The only problem was, was that they had been dating for three months now, and they hadn't moved forward in their relationship. It wasn't as though they had moved backward, but still. Dick was beginning to want a little bit more, and well, he had a feeling that Janina had nothing more to give. He sighed. He was going to have to end it soon if nothing changed in the next week.

He finally saw her, waving to him from the other side of the restaurant, and sitting next to her, he saw Susannah. He knew that she was going to be here because, well, Susannah and himself hadn't been getting on very well lately, not to mention the fact that Janina's best friend was Susannah. And Janina liked her friends to be happy and harmonious with each other, not bitter and angry like they were right now.

"Hey Dick," Janina said happily, bouncing up to him and greeting him with a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Hey," he said back, a smile playing on his lips. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine. You?"

"Better for seeing you." Dick's insides clenched guiltily at his own words.

He finally turned to Susannah and gave her a quick once over. She looked even more tired than she had on Friday. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot from lack of sleep, and the rings underneath stood out like bruises. She was drawn and pale and her cheekbones were beginning to show. It was amazing that she hadn't actually collapsed yet. But then and again, he thought grimly, if she keeps up like this, it's bound to happen sometime soon.

Of course, he already knew why she looked like the way she did. He knew that her dad had lost his job and he knew that her family was broke. He knew that currently, she was the only one keeping her family together by sending them all of the money that she earned every week to them. He knew about her mum's cancer and the bills that were waiting to be paid. The only thing was, was that she had no idea that she knew those things.

"Hey Susannah," he said to her.

"Hello," she muttered sullenly. Ever since that massive argument that they had had about a month ago, she now only ever said things to him that could be answered in one or two words. He still remembered it. And the most painful thing about it wasn't the fact that they had said some pretty ugly things to one another, but the fact that he had lost the trust and the slow friendship that was being created.

"How are you?"

"Fine," she said in the same monotone voice, fidgeting with her hands. Her gaze drifted from her lap to the clock on the pale green of the restaurant walls. "Oh, look at the time. I really have to be going. I still have some last minute things to finish for tomorrow's classes." It sounded painfully fake, but at least she had said more than one word this time. Susannah got out from her chair, pulling her jacket down over her thin wrists.

"Oh, come on, Susannah!" Janina whined. "Stay? Please?"

"Sorry, Janina, but I honestly have things to do. Plus, I need to go to bed earlier than usual if I want to do well on that stupid exam tomorrow. Anyway, bye."

And just like that, Susannah left, leaving an extremely annoyed Dick and an upset Janina behind.

Why was it so hard for Susannah to open up? It didn't take much. All she had to do was open her mouth and speak about what was troubling her. But she stayed painfully silent. At least she talked freely with Artemis.

…

"Hi Susannah."

I nearly screamed as I scrambled for the light switch in my apartment. "Artemis?" I said incredulously, my pulse still racing. "What the hell? Why did you come in here?"

"Because you gave me a key, remember, and besides, Wally and Dick are worried about you."

I scowled. "Well, if you're only here because they want you to be here, then can you please get out?"

Artemis glared at me and folded her arms. "Would you wake up?" she hissed at me. "Have you seen yourself recently, because if you had, you might actually understand why we're all worried about you."

"Yeah, well. You can stop being worried. I'm handling it."

"Sure you are." Artemis peered at me. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes," I lied.

"You're lying."

"No I'm not."

"Seriously Susannah? You seriously expect me to believe you? You know, Wally keeps coming home to me and he always says, 'Susannah looks skinnier every day.' So what's the deal? Because I am sick and tired of him coming to me every single bloody day and saying that. So, why haven't you eaten?"

"Not hungry."

"Oh please. We both know that that isn't the real reason why you haven't eaten. So what is the real reason?"

The answering words were on the tip of my tongue. All I had to do was say them.

"I don't have enough money," I mumbled. Holy crap, I had just said the _words_. Those words that had literally been destroying my life.

"Sorry?" Artemis said, raising an eyebrow.

"Because I don't have enough money!" I screamed suddenly at her, tears welling up in my eyes. I turned my gaze away from her. "I don't have enough money. I can only just afford to stay in this apartment as it is. As if I have enough money for food as well."

Artemis walked over to me and led me gently to my tiny living room. "Why?" she said simply, once she made sure that I was sitting down.

"Because my parents are broke. My dad lost his job several months ago and none of my siblings are old enough to work. My mum has freaking cancer and we can't afford treatment for her and the bills…" I gasped hysterically. "The bills are just beginning to mount up and I, I am responsible for everything! I have a second job that helps me earn more money for them, but Artemis… I'm drowning. I don't know what to do anymore." I buried my face in my hands, letting the tears out for the first time in months.

"Why didn't you ever say so? That's what friends are for," Artemis said to me softly.

"B-b-because I thought that I could d-d-do it by m-m-myself." Oh dear, now I was getting hysterical.

"You know, you remind me of me," mused Artemis. "I used to be like that. I pushed everyone away and I didn't let anyone in. I pushed myself into this dark corner and I didn't see any way out of it. I started doing things, getting mixed up with the wrong people… But then I pulled myself out of it. And you want to know how I did it? I did it because I finally managed to let someone in. I finally let someone come and help me. In fact, if they hadn't found me and helped me, I would probably be somewhere very dark right now. But the point is, is that I'm not. We're all here for you, you know, and we will all help you out. I know that it feels like failure when others come and help you what you wanted to achieve by yourself, but it's not failure. It's courage. And it's bravery."

"You should have gone into motivational speaking," I blubbered at her, a watery smile on my face.

Artemis laughed lightly. "Now what do you say? Will you let me in?"

I sighed. "I'll let you _help_."

...

"Hey, I talked to her. She finally told me about what's been bothering her."

Dick breathed out a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good. Is she okay?"

Artemis's voice sounded strange on the phone. "She will be. How's Janina?"

Dick paused. "She's okay," he said finally.

"Relationship trouble?"

"Something like that."

"Hey, did you want to come over to Susannah's?"

Dick raised his eyebrow. "Does she even want to see me?"

"Maybe she doesn't want to see you exactly, but I know that she knows that you're the only one who will be able to help her out properly."  
"Uh huh," Dick muttered, immediately getting the point of what she was saying. "I don't know if she'll accept."

"Well, she should, because she just said to me 10 minutes ago that she was going to allow us to help, and if she refuses, then we might just have to knock her out and force our help upon her."

A muffled, 'I heard that!' came through the line and Dick smiled lightly.

"I'll come over. What's the address?"

Artemis lowered her voice. "Oh come on Dick. Just because she hasn't told you doesn't mean you don't know where she lives. We're, or at least, I'm very familiar with your habits."

Dick smiled again. "I'll be there in 15 minutes tops."

"Oh, and Dick, bring some food, would you?"

Dick hung up the line, rolling his eyes. Now all he had to do was tell Janina that he was going to have to cut their date short.

…

I sat in the living room by myself, trying to pull myself together. Artemis, for the meanwhile, had disappeared into my bedroom while she made a quick call to someone. I hoped this it wasn't Dick. I, of course, knew all about him (there was such thing as the internet after all), and while I didn't stalk him, I did know the basic facts. But then and again, who didn't when it came to bloody Dick Grayson?

I knew his parents had died in a horrible accident when he was young and that he was later adopted by millionaire Bruce Wayne. Dick, obviously, became rich over night, and while he didn't make a statement of his wealth or his powerful connections, people didn't fail to remind him every day at school. I sighed. If he _was_ coming, and I sincerely hoped that he wasn't going to be, not only would I be his charity case, I would most likely owe him for life was well.

I vaguely heard Artemis say something from my room and my head snapped up curiously as I heard Artemis say something that suspiciously like, 'knock her out… force help…"

"I heard that!" I yelled at Artemis.

* * *

**Hope that you enjoyed it!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey everyone! Here's the next one! Chapter 12 will be coming soon!**

* * *

Susannah was curled up in an old couch, a cup of tea in her visibly shaking hands. She was keeping her face down deliberately, not wanting to meet any eyes of the people that were now in her home. Dick wondered if she was even listening to anything that was being said. He sighed and wondered how this strong girl had gone from being so fierce to looking so broken. His phone buzzed in his pocket.

Dick sighed as he looked at the number. "Hi, dad."

"Dick, I'm coming over to the apartment. I want to speak to the girl in person. I already looked up her file and everything that you told me so far is true. Her family is in severe financial shape. But still, I just want to check to make sure that this is authentic before... helping out."

Dick suddenly felt a wave of anger. "Bruce, to be honest, I don't know if now is the best time for an interrogation. She's barely holding herself together as it is!"

"All the more reason for me to come over there. I'll be there soon."

The line went dead and Dick had the sudden desire to throw his phone across the room.

"So, what'd he say?" Artemis said softly.

"He's coming over," Dick muttered angrily.

Artemis's eyes widened slightly. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. He has decided that right now would be the perfect time to do a full scale interrogation."

"Look, I dunno what you guys are discussing over there, and even though I'm pretty sure that I look pretty darn pathetic sitting over here, I'm still a functioning human being, so whatever you're saying, you can say it out loud. I can take it."

Susannah's exhausted, but sharp, gaze flickered to Dick. "Besides, what are you even doing here? We hate each other!"

Dick smiled lightly. "I don't think that 'hate' is the right word to describe our relationship."

She raised her eyebrow. "Uh huh. And what relationship do we have exactly? An unique one? An ugly one?"

Dick sighed. There would be no better time to do this. "Look I'm sorry for what I said a month ago, I truly am, but surely you're still not holding a grudge against me for that!"

"If you think that I've forgiven you, then you're dead wrong. But, for what it's worth, I'm also sorry for what I said." She chuckled weakly. "Some of it wasn't exactly… charming."

Dick grinned. "So, now that we've both apologized, can we be friends?"

Susannah scoffed. "Friends? Not even close, but I will accept a quarter of being your friend."

"Quarter?"

"Yeah. You're only 25% my friend. You've still got to gain 75% to be my actual friend. Maybe you should get some advice from Artemis. She's my 100% friend after all."

Artemis looked smugly over at Dick. "Well, if there's anything you want to know Dick, I'll gladly give you any help you want to be Susannah's 100% friend."

Dick folded his arms and glared at Susannah and Artemis. "You're enjoying this far too much, aren't you?"

Artemis shrugged and smiled slyly.

The sound of the doorbell rang through the apartment and Dick sighed.

"Here he is."

"Who?" Susannah said, now standing beside Dick.

"Bruce Wayne," Artemis sighed, taking the words right out of his mouth.

Susannah didn't have any time to say anything before Bruce stepped into the small apartment.

"Evening Dick," he said formally. "Nice to see you Artemis." He turned his sharp gaze to Susannah, who was now standing up as straight as she could, trying to seem taller in the shadow that was Bruce Wayne. "And you must be Susannah Brown. Do you have anywhere where we can talk privately?"

…

Bruce took Susannah Brown in, his eyes carefully accessing her. She was skinny and was most definitely underweight, and by looking at the pallor of her skin, he would say malnourished as well. He made a mental note to make this girl see a doctor.

Her expression, however, was one that Bruce did not expect to see on a girl who was obviously physical and mentally struggling. It was steely, hard, and fierce, definitely not the expression that Bruce had been expecting. She was standing tall, her arms folded securely across her body, another sign which Bruce mentally noted down. She was strong.

"I'm so sorry," Susannah said suddenly. "But I honestly have no idea what you're doing here."

Bruce paused for a moment. "Dick called me," he answered simply. "And I am always willing to help out when there is a good cause to help out."

"So that's what I am now, is it? A cause? Something for you to fix up and then claim for you public image?"

Bruce winced internally. She was quick. "Nothing like that at all," he reassured, keeping his face carefully blank.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because Dick called me," Bruce repeated. He looked at her. "He doesn't call me often, but when he does, it means that he cares. And obviously, he cares enough about you that he decided to call me." That was indeed interesting, Bruce mused to himself as an image of Dick sprung up in his mind. It wasn't often that people made a good impression on Dick.

The girl looked slightly skeptical. "We barely know each other."

Very interesting, Bruce thought to himself again. He began to wonder what made this girl so special.

"So tell me," he began, putting an easy smile on his face, "what made Dick so concerned about you that he had to call me?"

"The fact that I'm broke." Susannah paused for a moment. "No actually, it's because my family is broke, and I'm trying to help them… stay alive-"

"But in the process, you are also going broke," Bruce finished up for her. He considered her again. Not many people would do that these days, especially in Gotham. In fact, most kids at the start of University would barely speak to their parents, let alone send them any money.

"And what makes you think that I can help you?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. "I wasn't the one who called you after all."

"And, Miss Brown, what does you father do?"

"He's a computer technician."

Bruce, of course, already knew this, but he doubted that it would sit very well with Miss Brown if she happened to find out that he knew everything there was to know about her family. He stared at her silently.

"You father, as of right now, has a job at Wayne Enterprises. One of my workers has just computer technicians has just retired, and I have been looking for someone to fill in. He can work from home," he assured her, as a look of protest began to build on Susannah's face. "I will also pay you back all of the money that you have lost while caring for your family. You family has been overlooked by the system and you have had to take on responsibilities that someone of your age shouldn't have."

He looked on in amusement as Susannah stood gaping at Bruce. Bruce decided that he was going to keep an eye on this girl.

"I shall check on you and your family in a couple of months." Bruce made to leave, feeling that the work that he had come to do was finished, but he was interrupted.

"There has to be something I can do to repay you. I dunno, babysit or something? Wash your floors? Cook?"

Bruce sighed, about to dismiss her, when a thought occurred to him. "You know, I have another son at home. He's a bit of a handful, and a lot of people have… let's just say… struggled with him, but if you can manage him, then you will never have to repay me. But if I am honest, your thanks and your offer has already made your debt to me repaid."

Susannah thought for a moment. "Deal."

Bruce smiled. This was the perfect test for her. There was something about this girl that made him very curious and although she definitely wasn't like the others, he was nonetheless, still very interested in her.

"Just make sure to quit your job at Apple first."

Bruce handed her his card, telling her that he would phone her when he needed her, and left the cosy apartment without a backward glance.

This could turn out to be very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

…

I'm pretty sure that I was still gaping when Artemis came back into my apartment. Dick must have left with Bruce. As if hearing my thoughts, Artemis answered me.

"Dick went home with Bruce, if that's what you were wondering."

"Oh, right," I said dazedly. Artemis raised her eyebrows.

"What did he tell you?"

"Well, uh, he pretty much just solved all of my problems and offered me a job…"

Artemis narrowed her eyes at me. "You are going to quit your other jobs first though, right?"

I scoffed. "Are you kidding? Of course I am! Well, I'm only going to quit at the Apple Store. My other job is too enjoyable for me to give up."

And I was telling the truth. I loved teaching those small kids how to dance, even though some of them were spoilt brats.

"Whatever," Artemis muttered. She looked at me seriously, with her I'll-kick-your-ass-if-you-don't-tell-me-the-truth-look. "Are you good now?"

I sighed, a faint smile touching my lips. "Yeah. You know, for the first time in a long time, I think that I am."

"Good. Well, I'm gonna head back home now. Wally's probably wondering where I am."

"Yeah, alright. And Artemis? Thanks. I really do appreciate… everything you've done."

Artemis shifted uncomfortably. It was obvious she hated it when someone thanked her. "It was nothing. After all, isn't that what friends are for?" She gave me a small smile and picked up her keys from where they had been resting on the coffee table. "See you later, Sannah."

I gave her a quizzical look at the shortened version of my name.

"What?" she shrugged. "Susannah takes so long to say, and you hate Susie, so Sannah seemed fitting."

I grinned my first real grin in a long time. "I like it." My phone studied buzzing in my pocket. "It's my mum and dad," I murmured. I looked back up to see Artemis, but she was already gone. How could she do that?

I picked up my phone and put it to my ear. "Hi mum. What's up?"

"Oh, sweetheart! You won't guess just what happened! Wayne Enterprises just offered your dad a job and he can work from home!"

I smiled softly to myself. "That's awesome, mum!"

* * *

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	12. Chapter 12

**Hey everyone! I hope that you enjoy this chapter! If you have any questions, problems, ideas, or correction, then don't hesitate to contact me! :)**

* * *

It was the middle of the week, and I was exhausted. I had several exams coming up, and one of them was from the nightmare of a teacher, Professor Arschloch. It was surprising actually, how much everyone had taken to that nickname. In fact, practically my whole class now called him that behind his back, which, quite frankly, I found rather hilarious.

I opened the door to get into the dance school, my bag banging softly against my leg. I was teaching the beginner's ballet class today and I couldn't wait. Despite the mountain of homework waiting for me when I got back to my apartment, there was something about acting like a 5 year old and dancing to cute music that made me feel incredibly happy and… young.

"Hi Miss Susannah!" one of my students in the hallway called out. I smiled back at her and her mum, who was standing beside her daughter.

"Hello, Sadie, Mrs. Elter," I greeted politely. I looked suspiciously at Mrs. Elter, who was staring at me with beady eyes. Uh oh. She wanted something. Out of all of the parents that I had come to know through this job, Mrs. Elter had to be one of the worst that I had ever come across. She was rude, demanding, and always wanting something.

"Susannah," Mrs. Elter said to me suddenly, "do you mind if I speak to you in private."

I sighed quietly to myself. Mrs. Elter was also one of those typical 'ballet mums', meaning that in other words, she could be extremely rude and uptight when she wanted to be. Apparently, it was all for the sake of her daughter. Somehow, I had the feeling that it was more for herself than anyone else.

"Of course," I said, stalking into the small office. I set my bag on the ground and turned to face her. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"It's about Sadie. I really think that she should be advanced to the next level. After all, I know that you know that she's a good dancer."

I sighed again. I always seemed to sigh a lot when dealing with the parents. "Look, Mrs. Elter. You know that I have no proper jurisdiction over these things. I have some influence, but the final decision goes to Miss Bailey. If she believes that Sadie can move up, then I'll fully support that. But she hasn't said anything to me. So for now, I'm afraid she's going to have to stay where she is."

Mrs. Elter swelled up to her full height and took on a threatening tone. I fought not to roll my eyes.

"If she doesn't move up in the next month, then I'll take her out and put her elsewhere, where they actually appreciate her ability to dance well. So you can tell that to Miss Bailey."

I nodded and swallowed the words of retaliation that sat on my tongue. "I'll pass on the message. Thanks for letting me know."

Mrs. Elter only scowled at me and left the office.

Good grief. If I was being brutally honest, Sadie, even though she was a very lovely young girl, was at exactly the same level as all of the other girls in her class. Sure, there were several things that she did very nicely, but just because she did some things nicely didn't mean that she was automatically able to move up to the next level. I snorted. Parents.

There was suddenly a lot of twittering outside the office door and this time, I did roll my eyes. What on earth was going on out there now? I pulled on my worn ballet shoes and skirt and pulled my hair back, before stomping into the corridor to see what all the fuss was about… and looked into the eyes of Bruce Wayne.

"Hello, Miss Brown," he said in that deep voice of his.

"Hello," I muttered. Oh dear. I lifted my gaze and glared at him. "You're disturbing the students. Is there anything I can do for you?"

He looked faintly amused. "Actually, there is, thank you for asking. I would just like to sit in on the class that you teach if that's all right?"

I smiled diplomatically, but on the inside I was screaming. Nuh uh. There was absolutely no way that he was going to watch me teach. But then and again, who really could refuse Bruce bloody Wayne of all people? "Of course Mr. Wayne. We're just about to start. If you'll follow me, please." As I walked down the corridor, with Mr. Wayne following me closely, I could see all of the parents whispering amongst each other and talking in hushed tones to their daughters. They were probably telling the poor girls to dance their best, seeing as one of the richest men in the city was here. "Also, Miss Brown, I would also love it if you could dance for me? I've heard that you're quite good."

I looked at him quizzically. "Where on earth did you here that?"

He shrugged vaguely. "I have a lot of contacts Miss Brown."

"I haven't warmed up though," I said quizzically. To perhaps be more honest, I was grasping at straws.

"You can do it after the class, and I'm quite sure that all of the girls and lovely," he winked at one of the mum's, "mums here would quite like to see you dance. Wouldn't they?" he said, passing an encouraging nod to the looking parents. They started nodding slowly. Sneaky bastard. Now I couldn't say no, could I?

"Actually," piped up Mrs. Elter, "that's a pretty good idea." She looked at me smugly and I resisted the urge to scream at her.

"Well, why not?" I said tightly.

Mr. Wayne smiled at me. "Brilliant."

I guess that they don't call him a good businessman for nothing.

…

I could feel my pulse beginning to race as I pulled on my pointe shoes, lacing the worn ribbons firmly around my ankles. Although they had only been new about a week ago, the amount of practice that I was doing, especially in my pas de demux classes, was wearing them down like crazy.

All of the mums had crowded into the studio and all of the girls were sitting on the ground, chattering amongst themselves and looking at me. I had decided to do the contemporary piece that I had finished working on several weeks ago. It was an expressive piece with elements of ballet and modern dance. I had choreographed it myself, and to be honest, I was quite proud of it. I only hoped that everyone else would think so too.

I got up and stepped into the rosin box, dusting my shoes with the sticky stuff, before walking over to the studio, where I plugged in my iPod. The talking in the studio began to hush. I gulped. Should I say something? This was the first time I'd performed in front of an audience for a very long time.

"Um, this is a contemporary piece that I've choreographed myself. I hope you all enjoy it." I made a gesture to Miss Bailey who had arrived a bit earlier. She knew the piece that I had chosen to do, thank goodness, because she had helped me with the technical side of it.

"Whenever you're ready," Miss Bailey smiled at me, as I walked into the centre and sat down in my starting position. I nodded my head to her, and she turned the music on, the opening notes of the piece filling the room.

…

"Lovely performance, dear."

"Thanks, Lorelia."

"Truly spectacular. Who knew that Miss Bailey was hiding such a talent?"

"Thanks."

"Fantastic. Congratulations, Susannah."

"Thanks."

"It was alright, I suppose," Mrs. Elter sniffed.

I smiled at the students and parents as I walked, with some embarrassment, out of the studio.

"Ah, just the lady I wanted to see. Very lovely dancing, by the way."

I turned around and flushed. "Uh, thanks Mr. Wayne." I paused for a second. "Sorry for asking this, but why exactly did you show up today. I mean, surely someone as important as you has other, or rather _better_, things to be doing."

He smiled at me charmingly. "Well, to be honest, I'm coming to call you up on that babysitting job. I hope that tonight isn't too short notice for you?"

"Oh, uh, okay," I said slowly. Tonight of all nights? He couldn't have any worse timing, could he? I sighed. "As long as I can bring all of my homework, that'll be fine."

Mr. Wayne nodded. "Anything you need. I'll be out for most of the evening and my butler will also be elsewhere. However, before we both leave, we can drive you to the manor."

"Yeah. All right then. When do you want me to be ready?" Rubbish.

"Now, if that's okay. We'll drive to your apartment first so that you can pick up anything that you need. You can stay over, by the way. It'll be nice for someone to use one of the guest rooms."

I knew that he would call on me eventually, but I didn't really think that it would be so soon. Oh well. So long as the kid behaved himself, I would hopefully be able to finish all of my work as well as my studying for the Arschloch's exam.

"Who am I babysitting, actually?" I asked curiously, as he walked me out of the studio and led me to his incredibly expensive and luxurious-looking car, where an older man already stood outside, ready to open the doors of the car.

Bruce simply ignored me, causing my eyebrows to raise in suspicion, tapped me on my shoulder and I turned to him expectantly.

"Alfred here, will drive you to your apartment and then to the manor. He'll leave soon after that, leaving you with Damian." He grinned a devil's grin at me. "Good luck, Miss Brown. You might need it. See you seen, Alfred." He turned to the gray-haired man and waved a small wave. He turned to me once again. "See you soon as well, Miss Brown."

Bruce Wayne then turned his back on both of us, with me waiting with my mouth hanging open on the weirdness of the entire situation and Alfred still waiting patiently by the door of the car, and watched Bruce walk down the path.

"Well then, Miss Brown, I hate to be impatient, but I do believe we must start our drive to the manor."

…

Holy shit. To say that Wayne Manor was beautiful was an understatement. In fact, it was the biggest freaking understatement of the century. I could barely comprehend what I was seeing, let alone believe the fact that I was actually standing in one of the most famous and exquisite buildings in Gotham. Whoever called this place a manor was an idiot, because according to me, this place was more like a castle.

"It is rather stunning, isn't it?" Alfred asked me pleasantly.

"Indeed," I murmured quietly, still blown away by the sheer beauty of it all.

"Now then. I shall just give you a quick tour around the manor and show you your guest bedroom, before introducing you to Master Damian. If you'll please follow me?"

I was very curious about Damian Wayne. When I had asked about him on the car ride here, Alfred had only smiled a small smile and simply told me that I would soon find out for myself. Of course, Alfred had told me all of the basic facts, like his age (he was 10) and that he could be a bit of a handful (why did I feel like Alfred wasn't telling me everything when he said that Damian was a handful?). To be honest, I was actually beginning to dread meeting the kid. This was supposed to be, after all, a peaceful night of study and homework! Famous last words...

"Master Dick," Alfred continued, "should be home at around midnight or later tonight. He also has some business to attend to, but he will most likely be home long before Master Wayne or myself." Alfred walked me into the kitchen. "I would love to give you a tour of this kitchen right now, but time is limited. However, there will be everything you need to cook in here."

I smiled a small smile at him. This was quite obviously Alfred's favourite room. "Right then, on we go to your temporary bedroom." He bustled me down several more corridors and I began to wonder if I would ever find my way back to the kitchen or any place in this bloody castle. "Here we are. The bathroom extends from the bedroom and there are towels already hung up. The code for the Internet is sitting underneath that vase of flowers over there, just in case you'll need it for your research."

That was it. This place was incredible. I mean, I knew that it already was, it was just that the Internet definitely topped the deal. The entire bedroom was bigger than my apartment by itself, and that didn't even include the bathroom. I set my things gently on the gigantic bed and beamed at Alfred.

"So, where's this little devil that I'm supposed to meet?"

Alfred raised his eyebrows at my sudden eagerness. "Master Damian, Miss Brown, is in his own room, waiting for us."

My smile dropped and I frowned slightly at the tone of Alfred's voice and once again, I actually began to think that perhaps this whole babysitting thing was not going to be as easy as I first expected. I had done a babysitting job once when I had been 14. It had actually been alright. I remember that I had freaked out over for days before the actual night of babysitting arrived, and it turned out to be fine. The family's children who had watched that night had sat quietly, played with their toys, and did make some noise, but overall, it had pretty much been a perfect first experience. This experience, however, could be something completely different.

I followed Alfred down the hall to meet Damian, apprehension swelling in my chest.

"Here we are, Miss Brown," Alfred said politely, and I realised with a start that we were standing outside Damian's door. I nearly started laughing right there and then, because the door… good grief, the door.

The entire thing was covered with posters and threats, such as 'Danger, do not enter or else!' and 'I'm smarter than you, so back away from my intelligence before you die!'.

Alfred raised his eyes at me. "It is indeed quite a sight, isn't it Miss Brown. Master Damian, Miss Brown is here!"

A frustrated yell came from inside the room. "I told you, Pennyworth, I don't need a babysitter. I can take care of myself!"

Alfred turned to me, a sudden exhausted look appearing in his face. "He's all yours, Miss Brown. I wish you luck." And just like that, Alfred turned away. I gulped. It looked like I would no longer be receiving any help from his end.

"So you're Susannah Brown, are you?" a voice said to me imperiously, and I looked at the door which had opened without me realizing it, revealing a small boy with black hair standing in the doorway.

"That would be me," I said, raising my eyebrow at him. "And you must be Damian?"

"Well of course," he said arrogantly. "Do you see anyone else around this dump? Now go away. I have no need to mingle with the likes of you." He waved his hand in a shooing like motion. "Leave. Go. Skedaddle. I don't care. Just get out."

My mouth dropped open in disbelief. A bit of a handful? A little bit trying? A unique child? I was going to _kill_ Bruce Wayne.

"No," I said furiously, glaring at Damian. "I will not leave-"

"Oh, shut up," Damian said, picking something from under his nails. "You know, Grayson talks about you a lot. I was almost expecting someone good, but it seems I was wrong." He looked up at me under his eyelashes slyly.

Oh the sneaky bastard. He was baiting me.

"You're really a Wayne, aren't you," I said deadpanned, folding my arms across my chest. Don't let him get to me, I repeated silently to myself. Don't let him get to me. Damian raised his eyebrows and gestured for me to go on. I scowled at him. "I mean, you've got it all. The snarky attitude, the manipulation skills, the wealth factor…" I shrugged my shoulder lightly. "If you say can handle everything by yourself, then I'll just go to my room. I won't leave this bloody castle, because I promised your father that I would look after you, but I have studying to do anyway, and trust me, that is currently much more important than looking after you right now, so if you'll excuse me?"

Damian smirked at me. "Do you even know the way back to your room?"

"I'll figure it out," I said stiffly, before walking out on the little jerk.

…

Damian watched as Susannah Brown walked away. He had to grudgingly admit that she didn't actually seem that bad. She was almost pretty, for one, and obviously had a sharp tongue, meaning that she wasn't one of those boring idiot people that Father liked to bring home. She was much better than that simpering twit that Grayson was currently dating now. He glanced at the clock and decided that he would give Susannah Brown 30 minutes before going to see if she had found her room.

And with that final thought, Damian picked up his staff and leapt out of the window. It was time to keep perfecting his already perfect skills.

* * *

**Have an awesome Friday!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	13. Chapter 13

**Enjoy!**

* * *

I looked at my watch and groaned. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I thought to myself furiously. 40 minutes had already passed and I could swear that I was in the same corridor that I had been in 10 minutes beforehand.

"Need help, peasant?" came an arrogant voice from the end of the corridor. Keep calm, I told myself. Keep calm. I turned around slowly, plastering a massively fake smile on my face.

"I'm just exploring."

"Sure you are." There was a measured pause. "I'll show you your room on one condition, peasant."

I gritted my teeth. "And what condition would that be?"

"That you make me a pumpkin pie."  
"A pumpkin pie?" I said incredulously. "Can't you just make that yourself, seeing as you're so capable of looking after yourself?"

"I could, but you're supposed to be babysitting me after all, peasant."

He had a point. Good grief, I hated it when little kids where right. I sighed in defeat. "Only if you do one thing for me. No actually, two things, seeing as you're asking me to spend the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen. You go to my room and pick up all of the books that are on the table next to the bed and you stop calling me peasant."

_1 hour later._

I rolled the pastry out furiously, wiping some sweat off my brow. Pumpkin freaking pie my ass! Thank God that the bulk of it had already been finished. I glared at Damian, watching him almost enviously as he read through the books that I was supposed to be reading through for tomorrow's exam.

"So, you have an interest in languages, peas-?"

I glared at him. "Do you want this pumpkin pie or not? And yes, I do have an interest in languages. That would be why I have those books," I muttered irritably.

"Do you speak any languages, besides English of course? I can speak French, German, Italian, and Arabic."

The kid was smart, I would definitely give him that. "Of course I speak another language, otherwise I wouldn't be taking the course."

"And?"

I looked at him, trying (and failing) to soften my glare, as I slammed the pastry onto the bench. "And what?"

Damian let out an irritated sigh. "Do I have to spell it out to you, peasant? What other languages do you speak?"

"I don't see why I should tell you. That's my business after all. Not yours. And if you call me peasant one more time, I am tossing this pumpkin pie in your face, and then we'll see how much you enjoy it." I turned my attention back to the abused pastry and watched out of the corner of my eye as Damian scowled into my textbook. Spoilt brat.

"Whatever," he said haughtily, "I'll just ask Grayson. He'll know."

I shrugged my shoulders, picked up the pastry and began laying it into the dish.

"You know, Grayson's coming home earlier than he expected," Damian said, his voice suddenly sounding casual. I glanced up at Damian suspiciously. "I hope that you made enough pumpkin pie to smash in our faces."

Smart ass.

…

The smell of roasted pumpkin filled Dick's nose as opened the door to the manor and Dick paused in the hall, studying its aroma inquisitively. Alfred wasn't supposed to be back with Bruce until much later tonight. He shrugged his shoulders lightly, thinking that Alfred must have stayed at home after all to appease Damian.

"Damian! I'm home!" Dick called as he entered the manor.

"Finally." The now familiar haughty sounding voice made the corners of Dick's mouth turn up slightly. "I was going crazy with her in the kitchen."

Dick looked at Damian quizzically. "Her?"

"The babysitter," Damian muttered with an embarrassed look on his face. Dick smirked. Oh, he was definitely storing this moment away for future blackmail. "She refuses to say anything to me, even though I'm ordering her to! And when she does say things to me, the only things that come out of her mouth are threats."

Dick sighed. He couldn't believe this kid sometimes. He had an incredible IQ, but he still acted like a complete child. He shrugged his coat off and hung it up on the hook, next to one that looked suspiciously like…

"Susannah Brown is here?" he asked Damian suddenly.

"Who else do you think?" Damian snapped. "She owes Father. It was the logical conclusion. She's making me pumpkin pie."

"That's why there would be the smell of pumpkin pie in the manor," Dick replied dryly. "I'm guessing that you forced her to?"

Damian looked slightly guilty. "I didn't force her, Grayson. It was a deal. I show her the way to her room, and she makes me pumpkin pie. Entirely fair in my opinion."

Dick raised his eyebrows. "Fair, huh? I beg to differ."

Dick started walking down the hallway towards the kitchen, the smell of pumpkins getting stronger as he got closer and closer. He was surprised that she was here to say the least. Bruce hadn't told him that she was coming to 'babysit' Damian. He couldn't help but wonder how that was going. He smirked in reply to his own mental question. It was quite obvious that it was not going well, especially seeing that she was making pumpkin pie for Damian in exchange for Damian showing her to her room. She had obviously done a pretty good job of getting herself lost if she was agreeing to that kind of deal.

…

I had decided that it was a rather disconcerting feeling to have someone stare at you for a long time. I sighed and turned towards the doorway to find Dick Grayson leaning against the door with a light smirk on his face and I began to feel the telltale signs of an unwelcome flush rising on my face. I quickly turned back to my pastry, which I was now carefully laying in the flan tin, and willed the flush to disappear. God, hopefully he hadn't noticed.

"So, pumpkin pie, huh?"

I glared at him. "Shut up. And besides, cooking isn't that bad."

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself of that fact." I hated how he sounded so smug.

I sighed and didn't reply. I was still kind of tentative and unsure about talking to him. He and I hadn't had a proper conversation in weeks since my 'breakdown', as I liked to call it from time to time, and when we did have to talk to each other, we had kept the conversation to an absolute minimum. It was definitely weird to see him and even weirder to talk to him, especially without Janina hanging off his arm.

"You know, you have to talk to me sometime," he said, an odd note in his voice. I simply rolled my eyes and looked at him pointedly. He honestly thought that I had to talk to him? I mean, I know that he called Bruce and – there was no other way to say it – essentially saved my family from the hole that we had been falling into, not to mention he had saved me from falling into the hole that I had been digging myself into. I owed him. Big time. Actually, I was probably going to owe for the rest of my life for what he had done. But just because I owed him didn't mean that I was going to talk to him.

"Oh come one, you're still not mad about me calling Bruce?" He paused, his voice becoming serious and his blue eyes hardening. "I did that because I was concerned about you. You were wasting away in front of m-, us, and we were completely helpless. You didn't say anything and we didn't want to intrude. So we let you alone. But several weeks ago, I had had enough. So I called Bruce. If you're ungrateful about that, then-"

"Don't you dare say that I'm ungrateful," I hissed suddenly at him.

"Then stop acting like you are."

"Oh yeah? And how the hell am I acting ungrateful? Look, whatever the hell you think, I honestly don't give a damn. But don't you dare think that I'm ungrateful. Don't you even dare. You have no idea…" I sighed and closed my eyes briefly, turning my head gaze back down to the bench.

This was exactly why I didn't talk to him. It always ended up in an argument of some sort. And seriously. Who on earth did he think he was coming in and accusing me of being ungrateful! Ungrateful of all things! Rude prick. "Look, are you just going to keep standing there? Because I have to work." But as I looked up to face him, he had already walked off.

Good. At least now I didn't have to deal with him.

"Do you always converse with each other like that?" an arrogant-sounding voice said. Oh please, not now.

"Shut up," I said, glaring at Damian. "That's none of your business. Now if you don't mind, I have to finish this bloody pie. So either you leave and be as loud and as egotistical as you like, or you can stay here and actually help me, seeing as this is your pie after all."

"You're a bad babysitter," Damian sniffed, before leaving the kitchen.

I put my head in my hands and groaned, guilt starting to blossom in my stomach. God, what was wrong with me?

After the disaster in the kitchen, I finished the pie, and not feeling like actually eating any of the disastrous thing, seeing as I partially blamed it for the mess that had had happened, I left the kitchen and carefully retraced my way back to the guest room, my books in hand.

I wrenched the door to the beautiful room open and locked myself in. I tossed my books on the bed and sank down onto the floor, trying to get some sort of order in my mind. I definitely couldn't study right now, seeing as my mind was way too messed up to be studying the miniscule details of the Russian language. I was going to be so screwed for tomorrow's exam. Why, oh why, had I ever agreed to this?

"Oi, peasant!" someone outside of my door yelled, and I jumped. "Are you going to come and eat with us or not?"

"I would rather not," I said stiffly. "I have studying to do."

"Grayson told me to kick down the door and drag you to the kitchen if you refused to come."

I scowled to myself. That sounded like good old Dick Grayson all right. "Oh come on, as if you could kick down this door!"

There was a pause. "You're rather dim, aren't you peasant?"

Well, I thought angrily to myself, in that case… "You know, I'm not stopping you from doing it. Like I said, I have studying to do and it's urgent." Not to mention absolutely necessary if I wanted to have any chance at all in the exam tomorrow morning.

I jumped suddenly as the entire door gave a massive shudder. Oh. My. God.

Damian was really going to try and kick this bloody door down. I was so not going to be responsible for this. I could see the situation in my mind already.

_"__Miss Brown, I am extremely disappointed in you. These doors are an awful lot of money and now, we have to replace one because you weren't able to follow simple orders!" _

I gulped, scrambled to my feet and wrenched the door open, which in hindsight, was definitely not my brightest moment. Damian's kick came swift and hard directly into my poor abdomen and I stumbled backwards from the force of it, completely winded.

Damian's eyes, I noticed, widened suddenly with apprehension and the slightest bit of guilt as I tried to breathe in. A soccer ball had winded me once when I was in fourth grade, and to say it quickly, it had sucked. This experience was no different.

"What the hell?" I gasped, when I finally felt like I could breathe.

Damian sniffed and folded his arms. "It's not exactly my fault, peasant," he said snootily. "You're the one who decided to open the door without warning me." He eyed me up and down. "Are you okay?"

I sighed, rubbing my stomach. "Just peachy. Now, are we going to go to the kitchen or not?"

"You could have internal bleeding."

I groaned. "I don't have internal bleeding. It was just a kick to the stomach."

Damian huffed to himself. "No, it was my kick, peasant. And as you should already know, my kicks are far superior to any other kick that anyone else could execute. Besides, I was aiming to kick down the door, meaning that my the force and the velocity-"

"Damian, be quiet. Please," I added. "I can assure you that I definitely do not have internal bleeding. And I really don't care about the speed and the velocity of your kick."

"And how exactly would you know anything, peasant?"

I raised my eyebrows at him. "I'm pretty sure that I would know if I was suffering from internal bleeding."

"Pah," he snorted. "Many people die every year because they didn't realise that they were bleeding internally. Not to menti-"

"And why, if I dare ask, might anyone in this house be suffering from internal bleeding?" an icy voice from the end of the corridor asked. Damian and I both froze.

I turned to face Dick. "It was, uh, a hypothetical situation," I said as smoothly as I could manage. Hopefully, he would buy my pathetic excuse. "Damian asked me whether he not I had previously suffered any internal bleeding. And I," I glared at Damian, "said no, of course."

Dick looked between us suspiciously, before obviously deciding to let the matter go. "Dinner's in the kitchen, and if you want to it while it's warm, I suggest that we all go there now."

…

Dinner had been an awkward occasion with nobody saying anything. Dick had tried to make conversation, but needless to say, had failed dreadfully. No one had listened to what he had been saying. Even Damian, who could almost never shut up, was sitting quietly. He was in the midst of hoping, even though he knew that the entire matter was Susannah's fault, that he hadn't actually caused any major damage. After all, he didn't want to be the one who killed her. That would definitely not go down well. And he hadn't been joking when he said that many people died from internal bleeding every year. He had had basic medical training… Perhaps he would ask later whether or not he could have a look.

Damian snuck a look over towards her, where she was sitting and eating, a drawn look on her face. He would never admit this to anybody, but he wished that he had a sister. Dick and Tim were great, but because of the Team, they were barely around and had almost no time for him. This Susannah Brown, however, definitely would have time for him. It hadn't taken Damian long to find out to why she was actually here, and he had already come up with a plan to make her stay at the manor as much as possible. Once again, he would never admit this, but he liked her. She was fun to be around, and playful, in a grumpy, sarcastic kind of way. And even though he accused her of being 'dim' earlier (she had been acting extremely stupidly, Damian justified), he had the feeling that she was intelligent.

Maybe she would be the sister that he had never had.

…

I lifted the edge of my pajama top and grimaced slightly at the bruise that had blossomed under my skin. Oh goody. I sighed and shoved the top back down, refusing to look in the mirror anymore that night. Besides, I had more important things to do than stare at myself in a stupid mirror.

I trudged back to my bed, the urge to sleep already upon me, and grabbed my schoolbooks halfheartedly before lumping them onto the dresser. After dinner, which had honestly been the most awkward dinner in my entire life, I had managed to fit in three hours of studying, and as a result, I was finally able to say that I felt prepared for tomorrow morning's exam.

There was a small knock on the door.

"Yeah?" I called out curiously, before opening the door. To my utter surprise, Damian stood in front of me, trying (and failing, I might add) to look nonchalant and arrogant.

"What's up?" I asked.

He shifted slightly. "Uh, I meant what I said earlier about there being a lot of deaths due to internal bleeding…"

"And I meant what I said about me being perfectly fine," I said softly. The urge to say something sarcastic had been on the tip of my tongue, but the boy who had several hours ago been scowling in pride, looked genuinely worried underneath his cool façade.

"Yes, but-" he protested.

I held up my hand. "You have nothing to be worried about, Damian."

He glowered at the ground. "Yes, but you don't know that."

"And just like I said earlier, I know that I'll be perfectly fine. Do you wanna know why?" Without leaving room for him to answer, I started talking again. "One day, when I was 7 years old, I was riding my bike. There were a group of boys from my class up ahead and they made fun of me for still riding with the training wheels still on my bike. They dared me to ride without the wheels down the hill, there was a large hill in the area that I used to live in, and me, being the ignorant and somewhat idiotic child that I was, agreed to their dare. Several seconds later, I found myself screaming down the hill and I was completely panicking. I had no idea what to do, so instead, gravity decided it for me. At the bottom of the hill, I crashed into the gutter, and the impact pushed my abdomen right into the handlebars of my bike before I flipped over. The pain, good god, I still remember," I grimaced slightly, "was absolutely horrible. It was several hours later that my spleen was removed because it had ruptured. And that is why I know that there is nothing wrong with me right now."

Damian still looked unconvinced.

I smiled softly at him. "Trust me."

It wasn't often that I told that story, in fact I hadn't told anyone that story in years, simply because I was so embarrassed by it. I still blushed at the thought of it.

"Now, if I'm not mistaken, it's way past your bedtime. So, see you in the morning?"

Damian huffed and folded his arms. "Fine," he muttered.

"I swear," I promised him, "if something happens to me during the night, you'll be the first to know."

He didn't really seem very satisfied with my answer, but he turned away from the doorway anyway, and started making his way (hopefully) back towards his room.

I shut my bedroom door with a sigh and slumped onto my bed. I was so done. My eyes were literally aching in exhaustion and my head was killing me. Someone else knocked on my door. I groaned. Did people in this manor not understand that a shut door means 'I want to be alone, so please do not disturb'?

"What?" I called out snappily. I couldn't be bothered to move. "Who is it?" I tried again, trying to sound less grumpy and tired.

"It's Bruce Wayne, Miss Brown." The voice sound on the other side of the door sounded faintly amused.

Oh, _shit_. I tried to scramble off the bed but only succeeded in tangling myself in the sheets. Before I knew it, I had fallen to the ground in a heap of limbs and bedcovers. I staggered to my feet, managed to put the bedclothes in a somewhat normal looking pile on the bed, smoothed down my hair, and wrenched open the door.

"Mr. Wayne," I said as brightly as I could manage in my disheveled state. "What can I do for you?"

He raised one of his eyebrows at me and I literally had to force myself to not look down.

"I was just wondering how everything went this evening. Damian said that you cooked a rather impressive pumpkin pie, and knowing my youngest son, that is indeed quite the compliment."

I flushed. "It was nothing."

"My son, Miss Brown," Mr. Wayne said as he walked into the room, "does not take to or trust people very easily, but it seems that you are one of the few people that he has chosen to let in." He eyed me beadily. "I hope that you know what you're getting yourself into."

"Uh," I muttered, "to be honest, I have absolutely no idea what I'm getting myself into. Oh, and if it's okay, I'd like to walk to school, uh, from here. I know the way. I studied the maps."

I could have slapped myself as Bruce shot me an amused look. Why did my big mouth have to ruin everything?

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Once again, if you have any requests, ideas, corrections, and/or ****criticisms then don't hesitate to contact me! I'm quite enjoying writing this story so far. There are some big things coming up for Susannah in the future chapters, starting from the next one! Anyway, thanks for reading!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I was weightless. My hair floated around my head, catching on my cheeks and blinding me as it drifted slowly through the water. I felt strangely at ease. I felt relaxed. To me, especially these days, it was almost a foreign feeling.

I went to breathe in, but water instantly began to fill my mouth. I started panicking. This wasn't supposed to happen! My heart rate steadily climbed and my lungs began to burn from lack of air. The cool and relaxed state that I had been in only seconds before was now completely lost to me. In its place, I felt fear begin to overwhelm all of my senses, I felt my skin began to burn and I saw spots dance in front of my eyes. I kicked around in the water, but I wasn't moving anywhere. There was no up or down. It seemed that I was trapped in an infinite amount of water. The notion of death came upon me suddenly and I began to wonder what it would feel like. Would it be painful? Beautiful? I didn't know.

An unexpected thought struck me. I was going to die in this water. It was going to suffocate me, drown me, hold me captive, until I was dead. Until I was just another body in this sea of corpses… Wait, what? Sea of corpses? I cautiously looked around myself and to my unexpected horror, the vacant faces of the dead stared back at me. I started panicking again, my mouth opening impulsively to scream, only instead, my mouth and lungs filled with water once again as useless bubbles of air filled the water around me.

I woke up suddenly, my bed completely and myself utterly drenched with my own sweat, a scream ready on my lips. I sat up, gasping and coughing for air, trying to stop the panicked feeling that was currently destroying me.

I staggered out of the bed and made my way as quickly as I could for the bathroom where I promptly threw up in the toilet. I sank to the bathroom floor, my entire body shaking and trembling. I ran a shaking hand through my hair, only to find that it was just as wet as my bed had been. I grimaced. Disgusting. Another wave of nausea hit me and I leaned back over the toilet once again.

I groaned and made myself get up. I needed to have a shower. Desperately. I made my way shakily back to my bed, quickly checked the time and grabbed some fresh clothes from my small overnight bag. I couldn't believe that it was only 2:30 in the morning. In the dream, no _nightmare_, it seemed like time had gone on forever.

Apparently not.

I dragged myself back to the bathroom, and pulled off my clothes. They were completely drenched. So much so, that they were actually dripping. Just like the water from the dream, a nasty voice in my head reminded me. I gulped nervously. There was no way that I had actually been in the dream, because after all, it was just a dream.

Wasn't it? I frowned. I really didn't want to think about what I had seen right now. Unfortunately, my consciousness had other ideas.

As soon as I stepped under the water, the memories of the returned, flashing before my eyes like I was in some sort of horror film. The water was suffocating me, drowning me, drawing me into the sea of the dead…

I let out a half sob as dead eyes stared up at me, burning me with their infinite gaze. I shut off the water and stumbled out of the shower. The trembling had returned once again. What on earth was happening to me? This could not be happening. I could not have a fear of bloody water! I had to shower! I had to wash dishes! I could not have some stupid fear of water that came from a bloody and stupid dream. I ground my teeth together in frustration and smashed my fist into the tiled floor of the bathroom. This idiotic dream was not going to rule my whole freaking life. In fact, the thought of a dream having so much power over me was disgusting.

I stubbornly got back onto my feet and turned the water back on, taking in a deep breath and shutting my eyes tightly. No way was a stupid dream going to rule my entire freaking life. Not to mention, if I didn't shower, then I was going to smell.

The first touch of water to my skin reminded me of what I had seen in my dream, but this time, much to my relief and pride, I didn't turn the water off and I didn't collapse to the floor in horror and shock.

I spent a maximum of, I reckon, around 3 minutes under the lukewarm water before giving up and getting out. It felt good to get the sweat off from my body and my hair, and as I towel dried myself, I began to wonder why I had been so scared in the first place.

I hopped back into bed after my shower, but I was too wound up from the dream to actually fall back to sleep. So I just lay there and tried not to think about the dream, or about the exam that would be happening only a couple of hours from now, or the fact that I was sleeping in Wayne Manor, or the humungous bruise that had now developed on my stomach.

Nope. I wasn't going to think about a damn thing. Or at least, I was going to give it my best effort anyway.

…

Damian skipped down the corridor. Tonight had been a good night. He had spent time with Nightwing, beat up a couple of bad guys, and saved a lady from what could very well have ended in her certain death.

So it was easy to say that, seeing as he expected everything to be quiet when he skipped down the corridor where Susannah was staying, he was surprised when he heard noises coming from her room.

And as a result, without thinking anything of it, he opened the door.

"Damian?" Susannah half shrieked.

"Peasant," he replied, raising his eyes at her bedraggled appearance and somewhat wet appearance. She had been in the middle of doing star jumps and was wearing shorts that were so short that Damian was pretty sure that they classified as underwear instead. He turned his gaze away.

"What the hell?" she said incredulously, her cheeks flushing a brilliant red colour to match her hair. "You don't just burst into a girl's room at 3:30 in the bloody morning? What? Did you think I was getting mugged or something?"

Well, perhaps, Damian thought privately to himself. Instead, he said, "There were suspicious noises coming from your room. What else was I supposed to think? Besides, why are you doing exercise in the middle of the night?"

"None of your business. I can exercise whenever the hell I want. What are you doing up at this hour anyway?"

"I never said that you couldn't and I can be up whenever I want."

Damian stared at Susannah. Even though he had only met her yesterday afternoon, there was something off about her. Her face looked pale in the dim light that was shining in from the corridor from outside and her eyes were puffy.

"Do you mind?" she asked him irritably. "I'll see you in a couple of hours, okay? Or, actually, maybe I won't seeing as I'm walking back."

"Walking?" Damian said skeptically. "You do realise that you'll be walking a long time? The distance is exactl-"

"Oh," she let out an incredibly fake sounding laugh. "That is the reason why I'm going to be walking. My exam isn't until 10 anyway, so I think I'll head off in around an hour and a half."

"You could be driven."

She sighed, her whole body sagging as if the fight had left her system. "I'm walking and that's final. Now, can you please leave me alone?"

Damian shrugged and left her room. Time to find Grayson. He snorted at Susannah's wish to walk. He wasn't going to let her walk, he thought slyly, and if Grayson had anything to say on the matter, then she definitely wouldn't be.

It only took a couple of turns in the gigantic house until he arrived at Dick's room. Much like he had done with Susannah, he let himself in.

Dick had changed out from his Nightwing suit and was working at his table. Damian surmised that he was most likely studying for his exams.

"Hey Grayson!" he said.

Dick's eyes didn't leave the paper as he responded to Damian's greeting. "Ever heard of knocking, little bro?"

Damian shrugged innocently. "I have no reason to knock," he said imperiously. He bounded up to his desk. "Did you know that Susannah's walking to school tomorrow from here? I told her that it was a stupid idea, but she wouldn't listen."

That got Dick's attention, just as Damian hoped. "I hope that she realizes how far she would have to walk?" He scowled suddenly. Not to mention the amount of danger that she would be in?"

Damian shrugged. "She said that she did understand, but I don't believe her."

Dick turned to face Damian fully. "I'm guessing then, that you want me to go and talk to her."

"You know me too well," Damian said dramatically.

Dick simply looked amused before getting to his feet, a stern expression quickly taking its place. "You know, I haven't seen you take so quickly to someone before."

Damian scowled. "She's different," he protested.

…

I stuffed my things into my bag. I was going to walk and nobody was going to get in my way. In fact, I had just decided that it would be best if I leave now to save myself from any further harassment, and I was pretty sure that there was going to be some of that.

Damian, after his extremely rude entrance into my room, had run off with a mischievous look on his face and I had suspected that he was off to go and tell Dick about my plans. Good grief.

But whatever. They couldn't stop me, especially seeing as Bruce had approved. Well, he hadn't really approved, but then and again he hadn't protested either.

I had changed clothes as soon as Damian had left my room and had managed to jumble all of my stuff into the bag that I had brought with me. I looked around the room to make sure that I hadn't forgotten anything and walked over to the door. I shoved it open, ready to stalk out, but was faced with an obstacle.

To be more precise, it was a human shaped, warm, and hard obstacle. I scowled. I knew it. Damian had gone and told Dick of my plans.

I sighed and pulled myself together before glaring up at Dick and folding my arms. "Can you please get out of the way?"

He shrugged, his face blank. "That depends on what we discuss and what the result of the discussion is."

"You don't want me to walk," I said deadpanned.

He tilted his head in response. "I don't."

"I also hope that you realise that you can't drive me either. Especially _you_. I mean, you have freaking girlfriend! I can't be seen in a car with you! Especially in the morning! You do realise what everyone would think if we did that?"

Dick ran a hand through his hair, a habit that I had noticed he did when he was annoyed.

"All I would do, would be to drive you to your apartment, or Alfred would. I really don't see what you're getting so frustrated about."

"And I really don't see why you care about what I do."

"I care about my friends."

I exhaled. Suddenly, I no longer cared. I really didn't feel like fighting right now. My resolve, which had been so strong only seconds ago, had unexpectedly disappeared.

"Whatever," I muttered, before retreating back into the confines of my room. But just before I could slam the door to end my show of childishness, Dick grasped my arm. He was obviously just as in shock as I was by sudden lack of determination.

"Are you okay?" he asked seriously. His eyes were searching my face and I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Yeah," I muttered. "Can you let me go? Please?"

His hand left my arm, but his gaze stayed on my face until my door had shut him from view.

I slowly made my way back to the bed, letting my bag of things fall to the floor in an ungraceful heap. I flopped onto the bed and just stared up at the ceiling. I was so tired. And annoyed.

A light breeze tickled my face and I grumbled in exasperation. Stupid bloody open window. Now I was going to have to get up and go and close it. Wait what? Close it?

But, I thought carefully, it had never been open in the first place. Suddenly wary, I sat up slowly. It had been locked. I was sure of it. The fleeting thought of getting Dick or Damian went quickly through my mind.

"Is anyone there?" I said loudly, my voice shaking only slightly. The only answer was another light breeze on my face. I quickly grabbed the torch that had been placed on my bedside table earlier and held it up in front of my face protectively.

I got to my feet and started padding lightly around the room with the torch. I was pretty sure that I looked ridiculous.

A light keening noise was coming from the bathroom and I swallowed nervously. The thought of getting Dick or Damian, who were most likely much better qualified to handle this situation – and yes I had a very strong suspicion that Damian was not a helpless little child – had completely fled my mind. I straightened my shoulders. Who needed them anyway?

The bathroom door was pulled to, and the closer that I got to it, the louder the sound of gentle whining became. My heart was racing in my chest and was now so loud that I was pretty sure that whoever or whatever was behind the door could hear it.

It was now or never. I took a deep breath, prayed to high heaven that I wouldn't die, and roughly kicked the door open.

The sight that met me in the bathroom caused me to freeze. I stood like that, in horror, fear, and shock, for several long seconds before I dropped the torch clumsily on the ground.

Dead, wide eyes turned to look at me. They were empty, filled with nothing. Oh. My. God. I opened my mouth to scream, but found that I couldn't. The eyes, I thought to myself, they were exactly the same eyes that I had seen in my dream. For the second time that night, my body started to shake uncontrollably. I closed my eyes and forced myself to breathe calmly. I was just hallucinating. It was just a dream. Just a dream… I started to back away, but tripped and fell over the torch in my attempt to escape.

I almost screamed as I felt a touch as cold as ice on my arm. An uncomfortable burning feeling immediately began to spread up my arm and I forced myself to look up and back into the eyes of the figure of the dead girl that was standing before me.

"_They are coming_," she whispered. Her breath was like a gale that shook my entire being to its core. "_They are coming for you_, Hanna_._"

Hanna? Who the hell Hanna? That was my final thought before my vision went black.

* * *

**Hey everyone! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!**

**If you have any questions, suggestions, complaints, or just good old compliments, then I would be glad to read them :)**

**Question: Favourite Young Justice character and why?**

***IMPORTANT* Also, I'm going to be adding a new character soon who's going to be central to the storyline and it would be totally awesome if you guys came up with a character. Girl or guy, powers or none, it doesn't matter! But I would love to see what ideas you guys have and the best one will be used in this story! **

**But there's no pressure :) **

**Anyway, have lovely day!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	15. Chapter 15

**Happy reading! **

* * *

When I came to, I had no idea how long I had been out for. All I knew that it must have been a while seeing as the sun was now shining through the windows in the bedroom.

Someone was knocking on my door. "Miss Susannah. It is time to get up."

How late was it? "Uh, coming!" I croaked out as I slowly got to my feet. The bathroom dizzily swirled around in front me and I felt like I was going to throw up. I stumbled over to the bathroom and hung my head over the toilet just in case, but to my relief, found that I didn't have to use it. Once the nauseous feeling had disappeared, I passed a suspicious and wary glance around the bathroom. I breathed out in relief when I found that there was no one, or rather nothing, there.

Perhaps I had simply imagined everything. After all, the probability of me having seen a ghost was extremely low and the chance of me having some sort of whacked out hallucination was extremely high. But then and again, neither option was considered to be particularly normal.

Maybe I have a brain tumour. Didn't people with brain tumours have weird hallucinations or something like that? I walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, picking up my overnight bag on my way to the door. Everything was exactly the way it had been before I had fainted and uh, _hallucinated_. It was almost weird to see everything look so normal when my night had been anything but normal.

Maybe I should go to a doctor? After all, hallucinations (I had made up my mind that what I had seen earlier this morning was definitely a hallucination), and fainting episodes for no particular reason weren't exactly normal for a person my age. I made a mental note to get one this afternoon.

As I made my way back to the kitchen, I found myself looking around corners before walking down them and jumping at small sounds. God, it was as though I was turning into some sort of frightened young girl! And when I accidentally ran into Dick, I nearly screamed.

"Are you okay?" he asked me quizzically.

I tried to calm my pounding heart. "Absolutely dandy. You just startled me."

He had the same calculating look as he did last night.

"What's the time?" I asked suddenly.

"Seven."

"Right." We stood there awkwardly for a moment before I shuffled away from him. "I, uh, I'm just gonna go to the kitchen. I'll see you later." I quickly turned around and fled as fast as I could manage, without him becoming suspicious, down the rest of corridor.

The kitchen was delightfully normal when I walked into it. The sun was streaming through the large, open windows and the beautiful smell of pancakes was wafting through the room. In fact, it smelt so good that I nearly forgot about my traumatic experience the previous night.

I sank into one of the chairs and closed my eyes, bathing in the early morning sunlight.

"Did you sleep well, Miss Brown?" Alfred asked me over the sizzling of the pan.

"Hmm?" I muttered, not quite understanding what he had said. I was too busy soaking up the sun. "Oh, uh, it was alright thanks." I tried to add a smile to finish my words, but I don't think that it was that successful considering the bemused glance that Alfred sent me.

I rolled my eyes and stood up to get a plate. "Yeah, you're right. I have had better nights, but the room was amazing."

That, at least, was true. I had never ever spent the night in such a luxurious room. I sighed as I heaped some pancakes onto my plate. It was such a shame that it was wasted due to those hallucinations. I really had to see a doctor about that.

It turned out that the situation of getting to school was actually rather easily solved and I started questioning why I had ever even wanted to walk back to my dingy little apartment that was my temporary home in the first place.

Alfred, at my request, had dropped me off at my apartment so that I could collect my things. The relief that I felt when I unlocked the door to my apartment was ridiculous. For some reason, I felt like a burden had been lifted off of my shoulders when I stepped back into the little place that I now called my home. I mean, Bruce Wayne had an amazing house, if you could even call it that, but after what I had experienced last night, I was sort of blaming him and the house for the mess that I had gotten into.

I hoped that I didn't have to go back any time soon. I dumped my overnight bag at the foot of my bed and grabbed my study books, before collecting my school bag. I was so not looking forward to today. On the up side, after today I would have no exams, at least for the next couple of months, but on the downside, it was the Arschloch's exam, meaning that it was going to hell. Oh, and I had to organise a doctor's appointment.

Oh yep. I was so not looking forward to today.

…

"Hello? Earth to Susannah!" Janina said to me, waving her hands in front of my face. I suddenly realized that she was talking to me and I started out of the trance that I had faded into.

"What?" I muttered moodily, brushing my hair out of my eyes. I had no idea why I was feeling so cranky. The exam was over and it had been a piece of cake! I should be happy!

She peered at me over her lunch with beady eyes. "_Was ist mit dir passiert?_" _What's up with you?_

"_Nichts_," I mumbled. _Nothing_. "I'm only tired. Those exams were exhausting."

"But you should be happy, yes? You said hat the Arschloch's exam was easy?"

"It was," I said, breaking the bread roll in my hands into little pieces. I sighed and threw the bread back onto to plate. "Sorry that I'm sort of out of it, Janina."

"That's okay," she said, looking amused. She paused, an expression of concentration on her face. "I think that I know something that would cheer you up."

I looked at her warily, wondering what she was planning. "It had better got nothing to do with guys, because I'm not looking for a boyfriend."

Janina rolled her eyes and daintily tossed her pretty hair over her shoulder. "You never know," she said conversationally.

That was it. I was at the end of my tether for today. I had had the shittiest night sleep ever last night and I had had weird and crazy hallucinations that freaked the living daylights out of me and I could not deal with Janina and her 'Susannah, you need to get out more' attitude. "No, Janina," I snapped. "Why can't you understand that I do not want to go out and do whatever it is you're planning and I definitely do not want a boyfriend, so please stop bothering me." I stood up with a jerk and grabbed my tray with more force than necessary. "See you later."

I stalked over to one of the racks and deposited my tray ungracefully onto it before marching out of the cafeteria.

I suddenly felt a wave of guilt build up inside of me. Since when did I do that to my friends? I swallowed it down forcefully and closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath.

I had organised a doctor's appointment at the hospital clinic right after this morning's exam, but now that I had less than an hour until I had to be there, I found myself not wanting to go. What if the doctor discovered something that was abnormal? Like a brain tumour?

I told myself that that was stupid and that the chance of having a brain tumour was ridiculously small, but then and again, who else had hallucinations, except for those who took those hallucinogenic drugs?

And it was most definitely a hallucination. No normal person saw ghosts in a guest bathroom. No one, right? I faintly noticed that my breathing was starting to speed up. I couldn't have an anxiety attack. Not here.

I raced over to the closest bathroom, stumbling and apologizing as I crashed into people in the hallway. I barely registered the looks of annoyance and concern that people shot my way, but I ignored them. I ran into the bathroom and locked myself in one of the stalls. The bathroom, for now at least, was empty and it was something that I was supremely grateful.

I closed my eyes and tried to calm down my breathing. Why the hell was I having an anxiety attack? There was no reason for me to have one! Well okay, there was the fact that last night happened and then there was the threat of that I could actually have a brain tumour, but other than that there was not a single, bloody reason! I curled myself up into a small ball on top of the toilet seat.

I was not going to cry. I was not going to cry. I was not going to cry. I was not going to cry.

"Why are you crying?" an innocent voice asked me. Damn, I was crying.

"B-because," I sniffed into the my knees, "I don't know w-what is h-happening."

"Then maybe you should find out," the voice told me with a matter of fact tone.

"Go away," I muttered, still talking into my knees. "You don't know anything, so just leave me alone."

An icy touch brought me from my stupor and I jumped slightly. _An icy touch_. A feeling of dread began to build in my chest. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

"You'll be okay," the voice said softly.

I looked up slowly, not daring to breathe even though my heart was racing so fast that it was nearly painful. A pair of dead, dark eyes met mine.

"Who are you?" I whispered, my hands wrapped protectively around my knees.

"The question is," the girl answered, picking something from underneath her nails, "is who are you, Susannah Brown?" Her gaze met mine once again and I felt a deep shiver wrack through my body. "Oh yes, I know your name, _Susannah_. Everyone who is dead knows your name."

"You're a hallucination. You're not real," I said to her disbelievingly, shaking my head. "I have a brain tumour. That's why I'm seeing you. None of this," I said more forcefully, "is real."

She raised her eyebrows at me and laughed a dead laugh. "Are you so sure about that? I can hear the hesitation in your voice, Susannah Brown," she said casually, now leaning against the wall of the toilet stall. "But I'm not here to discuss whether or not I am real, because that doesn't really concern me. But what I am here for is to give you a warning." She stopped leaning against the wall of the stall. "So here it is." I was beginning to drown in her stare. "They are coming for you, Susannah Brown. The dead do not often concern themselves with the matters of humans, but this. This is important because you need to survive. You have been noticed by those who seek power and from what we have observed, they will do anything to find you. Listen carefully because I won't repeat this. You are special, _Susannah Brown_."

I nearly laughed hysterically at the weirdness of the entire situation. "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but -"

The girl kept continuing as though I hadn't said anything at all. "There is a group. They will help you, but you must contact them first. They are closer than you think. And Susannah Brown," she paused, "the last thing that you are is normal. I may or may not be seeing you again, but do not forget. The dead see all."

The girl disappeared, leaving me stunned sitting on the lid of a toilet. I was so going crazy.

I walked out of the bathroom in a daze, not caring where I was going and who I was bumping into. I had just talked to a ghost. I gulped as the thought repeated itself in my mind. _I had just talked to a ghost!_ But that was impossible. Ghosts weren't real. Spirits weren't real. None of this stupid idiotic stuff that was happening to me altely just was not real.

It simply wasn't real.

It must have been another, I decided firmly, been a much more wild and realistic hallucination. I glanced down at my watch numbly as I suddenly realized that I had a doctor's appointment in less than half an hour.

To go or not to go? That is the question.

"Hey Susannah!"

I jerked to a stop and turned around clumsily to see Wally West padding towards me, stuffing his face as usual with a large bread roll.

"Hey Wally," I greeted quietly in reply, carefully arranging a blank expression on my face.

"How was your final exam this morning?" he asked, taking the last bite of his bun as I watched him incredulously. I swear that only a minute before, most of the bun actually still existed.

"Uh," I sighed moodily and rubbed my forehead, "it was alright I suppose. I dunno about it yet because I'm not feeling so great about it."

Actually, it had been downright easy, but I needed some sort of excuse to be pissed off and moody with everyone.

Wally nodded his head in understanding. "That sucks for you, but I'm sure that you passed."

I rolled my eyes to heaven with a snort. "Whatever, speedster."

Wally froze, his eyes lighting up in a strange mix of astonishment, suspicion, and wariness.

"What?" I protested. "I just decided to call you that because you eat so bloody fast."

At that comment, the tension immediately left his body and I narrowed my eyes in confusion. What the hell had just happened and why one earth did he go all tense when I mentioned the name 'speedster'?

Wally let out a weak laugh and coughed awkwardly. "Uh," he said, somewhat speechless for once, "that name just reminded me of something from when I was younger. Anyway, catch you later, Susannah! Are you coming tomorrow night?"

I sighed. "Dunno yet. I'll have to see."

Wally pouted. "Oh come one," he whined, "you've just finished your exams! Surely you don't have anything else to finish off and besides, Dick and I have something special planned for tomorrow."

I glared at him. "I said that I'd see, Wally."

He held up his hands in defence. "Whatever, whatever. You don't have to get all touchy."

"I'm not touchy."

"Yes, you are."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Oh, shut up," I scoffed as I turned away from him, "I'll see you later because I have somewhere where I need to be."

Looks like I was going to that doctor's appointment after all.

…

"Hallucinations?"

I nodded nervously.

"And what exactly was the hallucination about? Who or what did you see exactly?"

I cleared my throat, trying not to feel awkward in the ridiculously airy room as the doctor with white hair peered at me with his black eyes seriously.

"Uh," I replied, twisting my hands, "it was a girl. She looked young and she kept talking to me about, good grief this sounds crazy," I moaned burying my face in my hands. The doctor was still looking at me. "She kept talking to me about the dead."

"The dead?"

I nodded again. I was nodding too much.

"Hmm. Well, I'm going to order an MRI and then we'll see what's causing these hallucinations, okay?"

"Okay," I whispered.

"Just one last question. I know that you already said this, but are you absolutely certain that you weren't under the influence of drugs or alcohol?"

"Yes, I'm certain!" I snapped at him. Him and his stupid questions were beginning to get on my nerves and I had gotten to the last bit of my already taut patience. "I have never gotten drunk or taken drugs in my life! I mean, seriously? Do I honestly look like a girl who would get nauseatingly drunk and high every bloody night?"

"Hmm," was all the doctor said in reply after a significant pause. He wrote something on his piece of paper. "If you go up to the fourth floor, you'll be seen right away. And after that, you can come back down here and then we'll talk about the results."

I got up stiffly. "Thank you," I said rigidly, taking the paper that he placed into my slightly quivering hands. "Fourth floor. MRI. Back down here," I confirmed.

"You got it," the doctor said with the first smile that I had seen. The smile looked similar to that what a shark gives a fish before he brutally eats it and I actually found myself cowering slightly away from it as an odd shiver trickled its way down my spine.

I walked out of the room as quickly as I could manage, my heart thudding in my chest.

…

"Dude," Wally laughed, "did you see Susannah today? She looked like she had seen a ghost or something! It was totally weird. You know, I ran into her earlier and she seemed a little bit loopy if you know what I mean." He took a large slurp of his drink. "I've never seen her like that before. She's always been so… I dunno. Calm, I guess. But whatever," he lowered his voice down to a loud whisper, "it's probably that time of month."

Dick rolled his eyes. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" he asked playfully, pointedly ignoring Wally's previous comment.

"Dude, if I had somewhere to be then I wouldn't be here with you, would I? How's the team going, by the way?"

"You know, there's still a spot open for you and Artemis if you want to come back. Everyone would be happy to have you guys back on the team."

Wally sighed. "Look Dick, I know that you want to have us back on the team, but the thing is, is that we quit. We quit years ago and we don't want back in, so it doesn't matter how many times you ask because we'll always say no."

Dick shifted uncomfortably. No time like the present he thought to himself grimly. He took a deep breath. "Well, that's not what Artemis told me," he finally said. "She said that she'd be willing to come back to the team for that… uh, deep undercover mission."  
Wally stopped suddenly in the hallway and turned to Dick with an unexpected fury in his eyes. "You did what?"

Dick sighed and rubbed his neck tiredly. "I spoke to her about the undercover mission and she accepted."

"She wouldn't."  
"Well, she did. Maybe you should ask her yourself."

Wally clenched his hands into tight fists and glared at Dick. "You couldn't have told me that you were going to do that? I mean," he spat, "that's what friends do, right? They tell each other when something important has just happened or when, for instance, they ask their girlfriend to take part in an extremely dangerous undercover mission, which they might not return from! I know that Kaldur has been undercover for a couple of months now, but just because he's there doesn't make it any better! She might not come back, Dick," Wally whispered, suddenly sounding frighteningly desperate. "I can't lose her, Dick…"

Dick placed a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. "She'll come back to you. Wally."

"But you can't promise that."

"No," Dick paused, "I can't."

* * *

**Hey everyone! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and if you happen to spot any errors in grammar or in spelling, then please message me!  
****Also, if you have any questions, complaints, requests, or just old old compliments, then don't hesitate to come and ask me!**

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**


	16. Chapter 16

I sat, tapping my fingers impatiently against the armrest of the chair, in the doctor's cold office. What was taking him so long? I had been waiting in here for almost 15 minutes already and it was beginning to get late. I looked anxiously out of the window at the darkening sky. I had been here for longer than I had been expecting and it was beginning to make me nervous. What if something really had showed up?

The sound of the door opening made me jump suddenly and I turned around to face the shark-like smile of the doctor. He walked slowly over to his desk and I found myself tapping my fingers even faster as my anticipation grew.

"Miss Brown, I can assure you, that while I looked very closely at the scans, there was nothing significant to be found. So, if you are absolutely certain that if you weren't under the influence of drugs or alcohol then I can only say that you must have hallucinated due to extreme tiredness."

I let out a breath that I hadn't realized that I had been holding in. "Thank you," I said finally. I collected my bag with some relief and got up from the hard chair, grateful for the chance to now stretch my legs.

"However, I would advise you to be careful, Miss Brown," he said suddenly, his voice almost… _grim_. "Because if I were you, I would keep your talent well hidden."

"What talent?" I asked sharply, staring at him. "I don't have any talent. And besides, you said that nothing significant had showed up on the scans."

The doctor shrugged lightly. "But what about the things on the scan that aren't as significant? I found that you had rather a lot of those, so if I were you I would be careful."

I frowned at him, slowly edging towards the back of the room as my heart rate started to pick up. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I said as coldly as I could muster.

"There are only a few of us that have gifts, Miss Brown, and even fewer of us that have particularly dangerous and intriguing ones. Yours, in particular, is very interesting indeed. So I will repeat it once again. I would keep your talent well hidden. Now, goodbye Miss Brown. I expect," he looked out of the large window, "that this is the last time that I shall be seeing you, if you know what's good for you."

A shiver passed over me as I followed his gaze out of the window. It was as though he was looking at someone over in another building.

"Tell me," I demanded suddenly, surprising even myself.

"The less you know," the doctor murmured quietly, still staring out of the window, "the better it will be for all of us."

"What do you mean, 'for all of us'?"

The doctor turned to me once again and I stumbled backwards as his gaze connected with mine. I couldn't conceal my gasp of horror as the blue eyes, that had been so watery before, started turning a gruesome dark colour. The irises of his eyes turned dark first, but it didn't just stop there. The whites of his eyes followed next, turning black and sucking out the life of his face.

The darkness started spreading under his eyes and down his face in dark and thick veins of black. His hair started turning black and then started to fall out, strand by strand, onto the carpet creating a black carpet. A keening wail now escaped the lips of doctor and I had to place my hands over my mouth to keep myself from screaming.

Oh my God, I thought to myself. Oh my God!

"Listen to them," he wheezed, turning to me. "You must listen to them, or you will not survive. Things are now in motion and there is no way to undo them. Be careful Susannah Brown and keep you gift well hidden! You must-"

This time, I couldn't help the loud scream left my lips as the doctor exploded into tiny particles of pure darkness.

Seconds later, there was no trace that the doctor had ever existed at all. I stayed motionless for several seconds, completely frozen and unable to move. Unable to do anything.

My entire body was shaking. I… I had to call someone! I had to do something! But a nasty little voice started talking in the depths of my mind, begging me to run. The voice was pleading with me to not linger, but to go as far away as I could manage from this place.

I stumbled suddenly into the wall and I realized that I had been slowly pacing backwards the entire time. I could barely breathe as panic started to overwhelm me, but I forced it down with a swallow of determination. I was not going to freak out. I was made out of sterner stuff than this. I was going to go and get someone and then tell whoever listened about what I had seen. I straightened my shoulders, taking care to not look at where it happened, and made my way out of the room with large, and – hopefully – confident strides.

I walked down the hallway, keeping my shaking hands concealed in the cuffs of my jacket and started to march up to a nurse, but someone stopped me in the middle of the corridor, grasping my wrist in a firm grip.

I turned around with a frightened gasp to stare into the watery blue eyes of the doctor who had literally just exploded before my eyes.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you, Miss Brown, if you have any more troubles like hallucinations, then just make an appointment at the front desk," he said cheerfully. "Have a nice evening!"

I stared, completely gob smacked, at the back of the retreating doctor.

But h-he had just died.

_He had exploded in front of my eyes and freaking died._

Before I knew what I was doing, I was hurrying back up the doctor's door and opened it without knocking. I glared around the entire room, ignoring the pointed look that the doctor was giving me, examining every surface with a brief glance. Everything looked exactly the same as it had before the… yeah.

"Can I help you with something, Miss Brown?" the doctor asked, a slightly insulted note in his voice.

I jerked myself out of the state of disbelief that I had worked myself into and looked into the eyes of the doctor. "Everything's just fine. I thought that I had left my wallet on your desk or something, but I mustn't have looked in my bag as well as I thought I had. I apologise for the intrusion," I muttered, before almost slamming the door in mortification.

I must have been dreaming because there was no way that the doctor could have died and then come back to life in seconds. That was completely unrealistic and not to mention, completely and utterly impossible.

It must have been a dream. Or another hallucination, I decided. That must have been it. And I walked out of the hospital, my heart racing and fearing greatly for my own sanity.

…

Artemis playfully slapped Wally on the arm with a short laugh as she looked at her boyfriend in amusement, as he recalled one of his tales from the day. They were both warming up before the defence class that was starting in half an hour, and were both rather enjoying themselves.

Well, at least they had been enjoying themselves before Wally brought up a topic that had Artemis scowling instead of smiling.

"So," Wally said slowly, giving Artemis with a measured glance, "I heard that you, uh, accepted Dick's little _deal_, but I thought that you had promised me that you had sworn off hero work."

Artemis stiffened.

"No," Wally added, now shooting his girlfriend an accusing look, "you had definitely promised me that you were going to stop doing hero work. Like, once and for all"

Artemis sighed and ran a hand through her hair – her signature sign that she was stressed. "Maybe… Maybe I did accept," she said finally, turning away to try and avoid Wally's look of disappointment and outrage.

"But Artemis! You, I mean, _we_ promised each other that we were through with all of that stuff. Sure it was good while it lasted, but it's over now! We talked about this and we agreed that we weren't going to do it anymore so that we could settle down, get a degree, have kids, have a damn future and you just want to give that all up for one of Dick's harebrained schemes?" Wally shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe that you want to give all of that up. This mission, well it isn't just any mission. You could die, Artemis! Don't you see that?"

Artemis simply sighed again and didn't say anything. She had known that Wally would find out about her decision at some point and was smart enough to realise that she could be giving up everything in accepting it. But it was her decision, and when Dick had come up to her, she honestly couldn't find it within herself to refuse his offer. She had stayed up at night, no longer sleeping, wondering and worrying about the impact that the decision would have on her and her future, not to mention Wally.

After all, it was as Wally said. She had indeed sworn off of hero work all of those years ago and she had promised Wally that she wouldn't go back out in the field, but she hadn't been able to say no.

Finally, she spoke. "Yes Wally, I agreed to Dick's harebrained scheme."

For a moment, Wally just stood there with his mouth gaping open in shock. Although Dick had told him that Artemis had agreed, he really hadn't expected her to. He should have known better as he scowled deeply to himself. He had allowed himself to hope, and now… well now he didn't know what to do.

Artemis glared at him. "Would you shut your jaw? It's really not that attractive."

"But why?" Wally demanded. "Why would you do that? Jeez, Artemis, are you really that desperate to get rid of me?"

Artemis rolled her eyes. "You always twist my words," she said bitterly. "I don't want to get rid of you because if I had wanted to get rid of you, then I would have done it a long time ago and for your information, I'm doing this to help Dick and I'm also doing it… because I want to."

"But why?" Wally said, his voice softer this time. "If I could just understand why-?"

"Sorry, but I'm not interrupting something, am I," came a voice from the other end of the gym.

Both Wally and Artemis sharply turned to face one of the participants from the defence class. Wally was pretty sure that her name was Lisa or something like that.

"Uh, no!" Artemis called out after an awkward pause. "Come right in. We're just setting up."

Dick turned up about a minute later after Lisa, or whatever her name was, had walked into the gym. "Hey guys," he muttered, passing a stony look at them. Their quarrel suddenly forgotten, Wally and Artemis shared a look.

"Janina?" Wally whispered loudly to Artemis.

"Oh yeah," she replied with a smirk, as they both watched Dick drop the bags filled with the gear that they needed for the class onto the ground.

"You know," Dick said, "I can hear you."

"Well, maybe that was our intention," Artemis shot back. "I swear, why don't you just break up with her? She's so annoying, and if you ask me, I'm surprised that you actually lasted this long together."

"Dude," Wally complained, "even I don't like her and I like everyone! Well accept James, and Fletcher, and Borris – seriously who names their kid that – and that idiot Kevin, and Lex Luthor – but come on, everyone hates him, and-"

"Wally?" Artemis asked. "Shut up."

Wally gave Artemis a sheepish look before he turned serious once again.

"Just because you avoided the conversation this time, Artemis, does not mean that we're not finished discussing it."

…

I scowled at myself in the mirror. What the hell was wrong with me? I was tough, no-nonsense, Susannah freaking Brown. No one messed with me. But instead, I was letting my mind – my mind! – play games with me and turn me into some sort of sniveling freak! Well brain, I thought stubbornly not caring how nuts I sounded, I'm going to beat you and whatever stupid moronic trick you're playing on me.

I stomped away from the mirror and grabbed my sports bag. To be honest, I was seriously looking forward to the defence class tonight. I had some serious steam to work off, especially after today. At least it hadn't been as bad as yesterday, what with the doctor exploding and then reappearing in front of my eyes and that freaky ghost thing, but my day had still sucked, the reason being that Dick and Janina were fighting and she was taking it out on me.

Janina could be nice when she wanted to. But those are the key words: _when she wanted to_. Otherwise she acted like a spoilt brat. She was always talking about herself or complaining about this or whining about that and it was beginning to wear everyone down; her boyfriend most of all.

Oh Susannah, she would cry out to me, I don't know why I don't just break up with him? He can be so rude and abrupt to me sometimes!

Oh, and here's another good one: Oh Susannah, he's so nice, and so hot, but he never has any time for me anymore! Is he trying to avoid me on purpose do you think? He better not be seeing someone else other than me!

It was bloody ridiculous! At first, I could take all of the comments that she was making, but now that it had been going on for a while, and after all of the weird shit that had happened this week, my patience was beginning to grow thin. I swear that soon, if they hadn't already today, I would make them break up just so that I didn't have to listen to Janina go on and on about Richard Grayson.

I shot a final glance around my apartment before checking that I had my keys. I shut and locked the door to my apartment, still fuming about everything that had happened to me in the last few days. I was so close to cracking that it wasn't even funny.

I tramped down the steps and out of the apartment block, hoping that Lisa had brought her fighting shoes, because if she hadn't, then she was probably going to lose her teeth.

Accidentally, of course.

_15 Minutes Later_

The walk to the University had been pretty uneventful, and despite the few odd stares that I had received for dancing along to my music, it was actually one of the most normal things that had happened to me since Monday.

Music, I decided as I tucked away my battered iPod, was a miracle to mankind, because no matter where you were or what you were doing there was always music around to suit your mood and your frame of mind.

I walked up the steps, greeting some of the other people who were also just arriving for the class, and made my way to the gym I hadn't actually spent too much time in the gym, seeing as sport wasn't something that I was studying. Plus, I had no need to go to the gym and work out or anything, seeing as I counted my workouts to be the dance classes that I went to. And trust me. Those were serious workouts.

I went briefly into the girl's bathroom to change, praying that some hallucination wasn't going to happen like it had the other day, and in several hurried minutes was back outside in the corridor again. I could already hear the slight chatter arising from the gym.

The class had suddenly become more popular in the past couple of weeks. When Janina had started dating Dick, she had come as well, but had quickly given up on it. She had later complained to me that she found it violent and disturbing. (I simply had the feeling that she just didn't like sweating all of her make-up off, but whatever).

I personally found the class to be a form of… relaxation. Not because I had anger management issues or something like that, but because it allowed me to go through the motions and to be able to put my effort into one thing at a time without having to concentrate too hard. I loved the repetitive work and putting force behind every single hit and punch that I could manage.

It was something that ballet lacked, because while I loved the relaxation that the classes brought me, there was never any sort of break. You constantly had to be thinking about everything at once and if you allowed your mind to wander, then you would find yourself on the ground or doing the wrong choreography. Ballet required the utmost concentration and discipline, and it was almost relieving that I didn't need to worry about that here. Dick and Wally were both good teachers. They were stern, but still joked around, and they actually put the effort into caring for the members of the class instead of just focusing on a select few. It was nice.

Today, as I walked into the gym, I immediately saw the 'surprise' that Wally had told me about yesterday. Artemis was standing talking and laughing in the middle of the gym with Wally and Dick. I hadn't seen her in ages and had actually been thinking about calling her up.

I put my bag down in the corner and jogged to the middle. "Hey Artemis!" I said happily.

She shot me a smile. "Hey Susannah. How are you going? Everything working out for you?"

I smiled as brightly as I dared to avoid her getting suspicious. "Yeah, actually, everything is actually working out really well at the moment."

It wasn't strictly a lie, seeing as school and work and money and all of those important things were working out really well. It was just… the other things, the personal things that were a little bit weird.

"So, are you helping out today or are you joining up?" I asked curiously.

Wally snickered behind his hand.

I glared at him. "What's so funny?" I demanded.

"What you said was funny," he chortled. "Dude, Artemis joining up to learn self defence? That's hilarious!"

Dick sighed. "What he means is," he said with a reproachful look at his friend, "is that Artemis here has learnt self defence for years and he, because he's so immature, thinks that it's funny that Artemis would be here to learn the basics when she's already so accomplished."

I snorted. "So what does that make me then? I'm here to learn, just like everyone else, and do you think that that's funny and that that's a joke? Are we all too insignificant for the great Wally West and his precious time?"

Wally held up his hands protectively. "Geez, Sanna, take a joke. What's up with you?

"Nothing," I muttered, staring at the ground. "And don't call me that."

Wally shrugged. "Whatever, but personally, I think that it suits you. Besides, Susannah is such a mouthful."

"You're an ass, Wally," I said bluntly, and I heard Artemis and Dick snicker. I turned away from them and Wally's insulted face.

I hadn't made very many friends here, seeing as I was of the opinion that I was here to learn and not make friends, but there were a couple whom I did talk to. I exchanged pleasantries with them, asking about their week and how their exams went and whether or not they thought that they did well or badly. In other words, we talked about the usual things: school, work, and well, more school.

"Hey George," I asked suddenly, looking at the dark, brown haired boy. George Yaus was currently in his second year of medicine at a different university and, in my eyes, was an extremely nice person. "I was just wondering if you knew anything about hallucinations?" I scrambled for an excuse as he narrowed his eyes slightly at me. "You see," I said quickly, "in literature, we're studying 'the mind portrayed through literature', and I decided to look at Lord of the Flies. I was just wondering if you had learnt anything about hallucinations and what possibly causes them?"

The dark-skinned boy's expression turned thoughtful as he pondered my question. "Well, to be honest," he said slowly, "I'm only a second year so we haven't really touched on the subject all that much, but because I'm interested in neurology, I do know some things about it. You could probably just ask one of bio teachers here or flick one of my teachers an email if you're interested though," he added with a shrug.

My curiosity fully peaked now, I urged him what he thought on the matter.

"Hmm, well, hallucinations can be caused by so many things that it's literally unbelievable, psychosis, schizophrenia, alcohol, any number of drugs, illnesses – take your pick – and other things, like brain tumours. See, that's what makes the mind so interesting! The mind is so unpredictable and there is never one straight answer. But if you want to look into it more, then I can definitely recommend Professor Aliosa. He's an absolute genius when it comes to all things up here," he said, tapping his fingers to his temple. "I can give you his email after class, if you like? I hope that I helped a little bit."

I smiled weakly at him. "Yep, you did. Thanks George."

He beamed at me. "No problem."

Before I could think on what George had just told me, Dick called us altogether, with an introduction to Artemis, and then a short speech about what we were going to do that lesson.

* * *

**Hey Dudes! I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter! I know that it's late in coming... If you spot any grammar mistakes or simple spelling mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me and I will fix it straight away! The next two chapters have already been written, so I'll be updating those very soon.  
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope that you all have a nice day wherever you may be :)**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	17. Chapter 17

_Last night, I dreamed about drowning. Again. And I woke up literally drenched in sweat, or water. Again. I honestly don't know what's happening to me anymore! But whatever. The purpose of this thing is to write down what I see, feel, and experience, not to complain._

I sighed and tapped my pen on my chin. It was currently 3:04 am on Monday morning and surprise surprise, I was awake. It was about a week later after the whole doctor thing, and I had decided to invest in a diary to write down everything that I experienced in the weird dreams and _visions_, as I was now calling them. The dreams, which were seriously freaking me out now, had dominated my sleep for the entire past week, and I had barely had a wink of sound sleep.

I yawned widely and staggered to my feet, blinking my eyes as I tried to banish the tiredness from my eyes as I tried to think up some sort of solution to my new sleep problems. I had thought about getting some sort of medication to just make me fall asleep, but something told me that that would just be making the entire thing worse rather than better. No, this was something that I had to overcome myself.

So far, it had always been the same dream, the same feelings, and the same emotions… Every night it had been the same bloody dream and it was beginning to piss me off! I tossed my stupid notebook onto the ground in frustration, and rubbed a hand through my messy hair.

I had spent so much of the last week surfing the Internet in the University library on all things to do with dreams. Each of the different sites had their own tips to give me, which basically included, 'talk to your doctor for more information', 'start writing in a dream diary', and 'meditation and relaxation is the key to sleep happiness!'

Well, I definitely was _not_ going to talk to any type of doctor, although I had bought myself a 'dream diary' and had grudgingly looked into meditation techniques that I now attempted before going to sleep and after I had woken up in the morning.

So far, none of it had worked. But then and again, it had only been a week. I groaned loudly. I had to call _the group_. That was the only way. _She_ had said that _the group_ had answers for me. But did I really want to do that? Did I really want to talk to _the group_? I didn't even know who _the group_ were! I didn't even know how to find them or contact them or anything! I scowled. Stupid… ghost thing.

I had to try and get in contact with the… vision again. She would hopefully have some answers for me, but how could I contact her? I saw the idea almost suddenly and wondered why I hadn't tried before.

Panic. Fear. Dread. Terror. I had felt each of those things before she had showed up. I took a deep breath and chose one of my most recent memories, the one from last week at the hospital, and allowed it to fill me up and take control. I felt the overwhelming panic, the fear, the icy dread, and the terror fill me up until I was literally seeing the memory in all of it's disgusting glory flash before my eyes. Then I recalled _her_. Her dead face, her dead laugh, her bottomless eyes…

I gasped suddenly, the memories vanishing suddenly, as I looked around myself wildly and found tendrils of ice coating the windows in shapes and patterns and a light coating of frost underneath my feet. I spun around quickly, still breathing heavily.

The pale girl was sitting before me, inspecting her nails, on my bed. Huh. Fancy that. It worked. God, if I wasn't so tired I might have actually have done a victory dance.

"Hello, Susannah Brown," she said, her voice bored. "So you finally figured out how to call me, did you? To be honest, I'm disappointed. I thought that you would have figured it out much quicker than you did. Did you discover the meaning of the dream then?"

"Uh, no," I said cautiously, still trying to believe my eyes that I had actually called a ghost."

The girl looked up at me and sighed. "So disappointing," she said. "I would have thought that it was obvious by now. But if I must tell you, then I shall. After all," she added softly, "they never said anything about that."

"They?" I demanded.

She waved her hand in dismissal. "Oh, just the more powerful dead people. Honestly, being dead is so unfair. It's not even a democracy. Instead," she scowled in distaste, "your status is all about how you died, when you died, where you died, how long you've been dead and blah blah blah. It's so annoying! I mean, just because I died an ordinary death from tuberculosis does not mean that I am less than some other idiot who got his head chopped off defending his idiotic lady love or whatever."

The temperature in the room dropped a noticeable several degrees.

"Hmph," she muttered, and I had a feeling that that time, she was not speaking to me. She turned her attention back to me. "Well, basically, I'm not going to tell you what your dreams are about, because it's just too much fun watching you get all frustrated. But honestly, it's really not that hard to figure out." She hopped off the bed and started inspecting my small bedroom. "Your bedroom is disgusting," she said bluntly. "So. Since last time we saw each other, did you do _anything_?"

"I, uh, I started writing in a dream diary? And I'm beginning to practice meditation?"

The girl shot her first look of approval at me. "Finally, something that you've done correctly. Keep up with the meditation, because that's super important. Dream diary is also important, but not so much as the meditation is," she murmured.

"And what about the group?" I prompted.

"What group," she said, turning her dead eyes on me.

"You know, the group that you mentioned last time?" I asked doubtfully.

Good grief, this was so weird! I couldn't believe that I was actually doing this. I really had done it. I really had gone up the wall. Gone nutters. Driven round the bend. Gone through the loopty loop.

Yep, I had finally lost it. I, Susannah Brown, had finally lost my sanity.

"Oh, that group," she said, recognition lighting up her eyes. "Yeah, I recommend that you find them, because they will honestly help you go through… whatever's happening to you."

I shot her an accusing look.

"What?" she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just a regular dead person. How am I supposed to know what's happening to you? If you really can't find them though, here's a clue. People look up to them, in some cases literally, and they do things. _Things that are out of the ordinary_. I mean, I could just tell you, but my 'elders' don't want me to do that because of some reason, probably a stupid one no doubt, but if you think about it," she lowered her voice to a staged whisper, "it's pretty obvious."

I glared at her. "You just love seeing me being all torn up about this, don't you?"

She waved her hand airily. "Of course. After all, we dead people have to get some sort of entertainment. What better than to mock those who are still living? Besides, it's really rare that you even have the ability to be able to see us. Not many do."

I snorted. "What do I call you anyway?"

The girl looked up at me sharply. "Why do you care?"

"Sheesh, it was just a question," I muttered, folding my arms across my chest. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

The girl let out a bone-chilling laugh at my comment. "Oh you naïve human," she said, her dead eyes now piercing through mine. "It's not about that. Names hold power, more than you could ever know and because of your… gift, giving my name to you could potentially be extremely dangerous."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Her thin lips pulled up in a gruesome smile. "As if I would tell you. Now do you have anything actually worth asking? I don't have much longer."

I paused. So many questions were racing through my brain. So many that needed answers.

"How do I control the dreams?" I blurted out suddenly.

"That's not something I can explain to you, not to mention the fact that there is actually no definite answer to that question. Once again, do you actually have anything that is an actual question?"

"Whom do you work for?"

She scoffed and walked over to my cupboard. "Even you know that I can't tell you that, but points for asking anyway." She pulled open the cupboard doors and started rifling through my clothes. "Your stuff is ugly and that's saying something seeing as what I'm wearing is a gross nightgown."

I glowered at her. "Get away from my stuff."

"Why? What are you going to do about it?" she taunted, as she started tossing my clothes onto the floor.

That was it. That was the final straw. I stormed over to her and grabbed her wispy arm forcefully. Surprisingly, it was still solid.

"Get away from my stuff," I growled in her ear. "And get out."

"Fine," the girl muttered, stepping away. "I guess I'll see you later. Or not," she added wickedly. "Oh, and next time before you call me, I suggest that you figure everything out. They were kind in letting me come to you, but next time they may not be so… accommodating."

And with that, the girl vanished.

…

I sat in my kitchen, staring idly at the wall. The sun was now up, and it looked to be a promising day outside, but to be honest, I really couldn't care less at the moment. My school stuff was sitting near the door and I had to leave soon, but I didn't know whether or not I could actually be bothered to go today. I was just so tired.

And after last night, well to say that I had a lot to investigate was an understatement. I had decided sometime this morning that this group was what I was going to try and find first. She had said that people looked up to some people in the group and that they were different. That they were special.

The thing was, did the ghost mean special as in mentally unstable or special as in 'they have powers' special? On that I wasn't sure, as right now I was pretty sure that both could be applied to my current state.

But she had said to find the group, so I was going to find them. What did I know about special people? Well you had all of those Justice League dudes who did wacky stuff and had powers and fancy weapons and flew around the place etc. etc. etc.

I paused in my thoughts.

"Wait a second," I mumbled to myself suddenly, "the ghost said that sometimes people literally look up to these people. She said that they were special and that they could do stuff and that they could help me understand!"

The puzzle abruptly snapped into place and I couldn't fathom why I hadn't reached the answer sooner. The group that she had been referring to was the Justice League!

I felt a brief second of euphoria before quickly sinking back down into the chair. Yay for me, I knew who the group was, but now there were so many other problems, like how on earth was I supposed to find them and contact them? I mean, I could start at the Hall of Justice, but seriously, what was the chance of me actually running into one of the Justice League to whom I could explain all of my problems?

I groaned slumped a little further into the squeaky armchair and buried my now aching head in my hands. Oh, I definitely wasn't going to go to school today. I had too much other crap and shit to worry about.

…

"Hey, Dick, have you seen Susannah this past week? She hasn't been in since Monday and it's already Friday!" Janina said crossly. "I would have thought that she would have contacted me or something. We are supposed to be friends."

Dick shrugged. "She keeps to herself. Besides, if you're so worried then why don't you just call her yourself?" But if he was honest with himself, he was a tiny bit worried why he hadn't seen or even heard from the red head since last week. She hadn't even come to the defence class and that was something that she hadn't missed since she started.

Janina glared at Dick. "I already tried that and she didn't pick up!"

"Her phone ran out of battery."

"That's what I would have thought too," she muttered. "But I keep phoning her and she doesn't answer!"

"When did you last call her?" he asked.

"About half an hour ago?" she said uncertainly. "But that was the sixth time I tried calling her today already!"

Dick patted Janina's hand gently. "She'll call back. After all, there are one hundred reasons why she may not have picked up, so don't worry."

Janina sighed. "Okay, but tomorrow I'm going to go and see her."

Dick nodded, but he had already made a plan. He was going to go and see her after school.

He didn't really know why, but a part of him had grown to care for the small, curvy red head girl. She was different, interesting, sarcastic, and tough and not to mention pretty, but there was something very fragile about her, as though she was about to split into a thousand pieces if someone pushed her the wrong way. Dick scowled. He thought that he and her had finally managed to reach and pass through the 'friends' doorway, but obviously they still hadn't if she didn't trust him to tell him what was happening to her. Because there was something happening to her. Ever since she had been at Wayne Manor, something had happened and he was going to find out what it was, even if he was going to have to wring it out of her.

…

**Hey dudes! Sorry that this update is late and a little bit shorter than usual! To make up for it, I shall be posting the next chapter tomorrow, so yay! :D  
This chapter is dedicated to the guest reviewer named Elizabeth :) Thanks so much for your support and friendly reminders!  
To everyone else, thanks for all of your continued support and beautiful comments! You're all super awesome and you all get the virtual strawberry tarts :)**

**If you have any questions or have noticed any mistakes in grammar or spelling please don't hesitate to contact me! I didn't look at this chapter as closely as I should have... :P**

**Just a quick note of niceness: So the other day, my class went to the art museum and this guy in my art class, who is pretty much the playboy of the year (you know, got the looks and the attitude and everything). We were coming out of the main exhibit when we saw an old lady fall over and he was literally the first one by her side, offering her a chair and making sure that she was alright and if she wanted any help. Some people in the class, including the teacher, were really surprised. As for my reaction, I wasn't actually too surprised although it was nice all the same. I've gotten to know him a little bit and I kind of suspected that there was something nice under that idiotic exterior of his. **  
**I suppose it just makes you realise that not everyone is what they seem to be, no matter what silly act they put on in front of everyone else. **

**Anyway, with that in mind, have a nice day wherever you may be!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	18. Chapter 18

Washington DC was a busy, loud, noisy place and I had decided that she didn't like it. The bus drive from Gotham to Washington DC had taken around 9 hours from about 2am that morning, and seeing that I was running on only a couple of hours of sleep from that entire week, I was ready to drop. But I had a purpose, and for that I had to be awake. Besides, I wanted to be back in Gotham by later this evening or early tomorrow morning anyway.

The day before, I had made the split second decision that I was going to go to DC to see the Hall of Justice and see if I could find out any info about the Justice League. After all, there was no better place for information on the heroes of the world than that of their faux headquarters, right?

So here I was in loud DC, walking down the streets, and trying and failing to find the bus stop that would take me to the famed Hall of Justice. I sighed. I was never going to find the stupid ass bus stop and get back home on time! Why was this so hard? I couldn't be that bad at map reading, could I?

Quite obviously, I was rather terrible at map reading or orientation or whatever the hell it was called..

"Hey, do you need any help? You look a little bit lost," someone said to me suddenly.

I turned around with a grateful smile. "Thanks," I said, relief in my tone. "I think that I was about to do something irrational if I took one more wrong turn."

The beautiful, blonde haired woman chuckled. "So, where are you headed?"

"To the Hall of Justice, if you would believe it. I have to meet my family there," I lied quickly. "I was out with my friends a little longer than expected and now I have to get there myself."

The woman smiled at me and glanced over at my map. "Well I'm actually heading there myself. I work there." She glanced at her watch. "If you like we can walk there together?"

I hesitated. She looked trustworthy enough.

As if the woman could sense my hesitation, she started speaking. "I swear that I'm not going to kidnap you or anything," she joked lightly. "I'm Dinah, by the way."

I gave her a cautious smile. "Uh, I'm Sanna."

The annoying nickname that Wally had come up with sprang to my lips. Oh God, if he ever found out about this, he would never let it go!

I followed Dinah to the correct bus stop in silence; much to my chagrin it had actually only been a couple of hundred metres in the direction I was heading. I was suddenly struck with a thought as I looked at the graceful woman walking in front of me. If this woman worked at the Hall of Justice, maybe she could give me some way to contact the famed Justice Leaguers themselves. But, she probably wouldn't do that without a good reason on my part, I mused to myself. And that would mean either lying or telling the truth.

"Hey, Dinah," I asked slowly, and the woman turned around, a small smile on her lips. "I was just wondering something. What if, I uh, knew someone who was in need of help from people like the Justice League? Hypothetically, of course," I added quickly, as I saw the smile fall slightly.

"Why?" Her eyes that had been warm and welcoming before had unexpectedly become serious and grim.

"I was just wondering," I said nonchalantly with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Well," she replied, not taking her gaze off of me. I tried not to look away guiltily. "I would tell that person to try and contact one of the League members."

"But what if the person, hypothetically, isn't taken seriously? And what if the person can't find a way to contact the League?"

"There are many ways to contact the League if there is a need."

"Yeah, but as far as I know, that would be committing a crime of some awful proportion," I challenged. "I mean," I let out a laugh that sounded horribly fake, even to myself. "How do you find all of those people that join? Do they, like, just come up to the League or something? Or is there some sort of audition day?"

Dinah stopped walking and sighed. "Sanna, do you know someone who is in need of the League?"

"Uh, no," I said as firmly as I could manage, and adding a hopefully not forced smile on top. "It was just a hypothetical situation."

"Are you sure about that?"

I swallowed. "Yes," I said tightly, raising my eyes to meet her steady gaze.

"Because it could potentially be very dangerous for that person and the people that that person is around." She was now looking at me very suspiciously and I felt my heart rate begin to speed up.

I stepped away from her. My time to leave was way overdue. "Well, uh, thanks but I just forgot that I had to pick something up for my mum before getting to the Hall, so thanks and maybe I'll see you around sometime," I said quickly, before darting away from her.

She wasn't quite quick enough to enclose her hand around my arm. At least she didn't follow me as I hurried off into the crowd. I would just wait for the next bus.

…

Dinah was still standing calmly at the bus stop, waiting for the girl, because she would come eventually. If Sanna, that is if Sanna was her real name, really needed to go to the Hall of Justice, then this was the only route and Dinah had effectively closed it off. And if she really had to meet her family, if there was in fact a family that she would be meeting, then Sanna would have no choice but to catch the bus on this route. She had already contacted the League, saying that she was taking care of something important and had let them know that she would be late, but that had been over an hour ago.

Dinah sighed. The exhausted, pale face of the girl filled Dinah's mind. The way that the girl had asked those questions and had then darted away without giving any sort of real answer to Dinah's questions concerned her greatly. Sanna obviously knew someone who had some sort of power. Or, perhaps, it was even Sanna herself who had some sort of ability.

Her phone started vibrating in her pocket and Dinah sighed as she saw the number.

"Black Canary, is everything alright?" Batman's voice was hard and cold. "You said that you would only be about an hour."

"I'm following something important," Dinah said. "Or rather, something could potentially be very important."

Batman didn't say anything. "Don't let it get out of hand," he said finally, "and don't hesitate to contact the League if anything goes wrong.

"Understood," Dinah said, before hanging up and glancing at the time on her phone. She would only be able to wait an hour maximum before she really had to leave to get to the Hall of Justice.

…

I glared at the blonde woman from in the café. It had been over two hours now, and Dinah still hadn't moved from her spot on the small bench in front of the bus stop. It was quite obvious that she was waiting for me, and I didn't like it one bit. What was she? The searcher of freaks? The freak-napper?

I snickered darkly to myself at the joke that really wasn't very funny before glancing out the window and out at the cloudy day.

The hours of the day were slowly disappearing seeing as it was now close to 2pm and at this rate I would be spending a night on the streets if she didn't leave, because I was definitely not going back to Gotham until I had actually been to the freaking Hall of Justice.

But was it really so bad if she knew, a part of me wondered. Would it really be so bad if I just told her? After all, this is what the ghost person thing had told me to do after all. She had told me to find the Justice League, and Dinah, who at the very least worked for the Justice League themselves, was sitting right outside waiting for me.

But I didn't want to. I was afraid of what would happen if I went over there and told her what was really going on. And plus, to be honest, I really didn't have that much to tell anyway. I mean, I was either a) hallucinating or b) had some sort of weird thing happening to me that enabled me to see the dead.

I didn't know if I could do anything else, and to be honest, I was ashamed that my gift wasn't something that was cooler. The League had all of these cool people with cool powers, and mine – if it was actually a power – was, well, kinda lame. And scary. And super super super creepy and weird. Plus, what if she didn't believe me? What if she thought that I was a phony? What if, what if, what if. I hate 'what if' questions.

But that got me onto a completely different train of thought. What if – there was another one of those dreaded 'what if' questions – I could actually do other things? Like, I dunno; call the power of the dead or something like that? I grinned into my coffee. That could potentially be very cool and I imagined an army of the dead saving the planet, much like they had in the Lord of the Rings.

But then and again… I stared out of the window again and was greeted – I didn't know why I was surprised anymore – with the sight of the woman. She was still sitting there and I had a terrible feeling that she wasn't going to be leaving any time soon either. Oh well. If she wasn't going to move, then I was going to go to a different bus stop down the road that headed in the same direction, because I had decided that I definitely wasn't going to be telling her about my little ghost problem. I chugged the rest of my coffee. Yep, time to leave, I thought to myself.

I called over one of the staff.

"Excuse me," I said politely, as I dug out a map out of my bag. "I would like to walk to the Hall of Justice, so could you please mark on the map how I get there from here?"

"You know that there's a bus, right?" the girl said, raising an eyebrow at me.

I shrugged and smiled at her. "Yeah, but you know. Walking is better than using public transport." I patted my stomach and smiled slyly. "Trying to lose a couple of kilos, if you know what I mean?"

The waitress rolled her eyes. "Well okay, whatever. Give the map here."

I handed the map and pen over and she marked a route. "That's the quickest route," she said when she had finished, "but it will still take you over an hour to get there by walking."

"Thanks," I said gratefully.

"Oh," the girl said to me, "and I also marked some of the bus stops that head over to the Hall of Justice along your route, just in case you get tired of walking."

I smiled an even bigger smile at the girl. It hurt my cheeks. "Thanks," I said again.

"No problem and have fun!"

I nodded and made sure to tip generously before I left. Thank God for nice people like her.

I ended up walking the entire way from the café to the Hall of Justice simply because it was nice to walk. Not to mention, every single time I saw a bus, it was full to the brim with people and seeing as I really didn't feel like being squashed like a sardine, I walked.

The streets of DC were loud and stank with the pollution from all of the cars, so in that regard, it wasn't so pleasant, but otherwise it was nice. I wandered into a couple of shops here and there and just pretty much dawdled the entire way, so by the time I reached the Hall of Justice, it was nearly 3:30pm. It was a lot later than I had wanted, but I figured that it didn't really matter that much. It wasn't as though I was on a time schedule anymore anyway.

As I walked up the path to the Hall of Justice, it struck me at how majestic it really was. The whole entrance looked to be made out of solid stone with a globe of glass right in the middle. The words, Hall of Justice, were printed right above the entrance. But there was something cold and empty about it, which – at least for me – destroyed its powerful image.

So many people were walking up the steps to enter the building and I suddenly wondered whether or not it was such a good idea for me to come on a Friday afternoon. I groaned. I was so stupid. If I hadn't waited around so long in that café and if I hadn't actually dawdled on my way here, then it might not have been so busy!

Oh well. I was here now, and I wasn't going to be coming back any time soon, so I decided to make the most of it and got in the long line to wait to buy my ticket.

But that was when something completely unexpected happened.

The man standing in front of me, with a small child tugging on his hand excitedly, and a beautiful wife standing by his side, collapsed. At first, I just stared in shock for an entire second while the boy started screaming in distress and the woman started screaming for help.

I can't really tell you what happened next, because I'm not too clear on the details myself, but for some reason I dropped to my knees beside the man and placed my fingers to the man's pulse point.

Holy shit, I thought in horror. The man wasn't breathing. There wasn't a pulse. Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod. I grappled at the man's wrist, trying to find a pulse there, but a part of me already knew that I would find nothing. I stared at the man in shock. Possibilities ran through my mind thanks to the limited medical research that I had conducted over the years. Heart attack, aneurism… It could be anything.

But I couldn't just let him die! He had a wife and a child! He had a future! He had a _life_. I suddenly became very calm as I saw for the first time what I had to do. This man had a life and he was not going to die. Not if I could help it. And I had a feeling that I could. I had a feeling that I could make a difference in this one man's life.

I ignored the yells, shouts, and screams from the general public from my mind and embraced the silence as I pushed everything else away. And as though someone else's hands were guiding mine, I placed my small hands over the man's still chest as if I were in a trance. This man was not going to die, I thought to myself firmly as I closed my eyes.

I felt my palms grow colder and colder as I repeated the mantra that I had created over and over again in my mind. My hands became so cold that I thought that they were burning with an icy fire. In my mind's eye, I saw the man, laughing with his child only seconds before he fell to the ground and then I saw other things. I saw the man playing with his child, him kissing his wife, drinking with some friends after work.

I saw it all as I slowly pulled the man back from the brink of death.

And then it was over and my eyes snapped back open. My hands were freezing cold and tendrils of ice had made their way up my arms and under the sleeves of my shirt in swirls and delicate patterns. I was literally trembling with cold, as I stumbled to my feet, but the _man was alive_.

_The man was alive_. His chest was moving up and down, and even though his eyes were still closed, _he was alive_. How did I do that? He was… he had died! I stared down at my hands in shock. How had I done that?

And that was when I realized that a crowd had silently grown around me. And I turned around and fled and I didn't look back as I heard whispers and shouts reach my eyes.

I had no idea what I looked like, if I looked any different at all, but judging by the looks that people had given me, something had definitely changed. I wondered what it was. I let out a bitter laugh as I stumbled unsteadily down the steps. Could it be the fact that I had literally just brought a man back from the dead with my bare hands or was it the ice that was trailing up my arms?

I groaned as my head swirled dizzily. God, I was exhausted.

"Hey Sanna!"

I squinted upwards towards the steps where I had just come from and gulped. There was only one person here who knew me by that name. I started running groggily down the steps again. Nope, I was so not going to talk to Dinah right now.

"Wait!" Dinah called out again. Her voice sounded much closer now.

"No," I croaked out, still stumbling down the steps. "Go away! I don't want or need your help. Besides, who the hell are you anyway and why do you even want to help a freak like me?" I half muttered to myself.

I got the feeling that she still heard my comment anyway.

A warm hand enclosed around the still cool skin of my upper arm and I struggled weakly before giving up. Oh well, at least the ice had melted.

"Sit down, or you're going to collapse," Dinah said sharply and she pulled off her jacket briskly, wrapping me in it.

I sighed moodily and grudgingly sat down on the steps, rubbing my eyes. I was too tired to protest.

"Are you okay?"  
"Sure, sure," I muttered. "Now can you leave me alone please? I really just want to be left alone right now."

"Well that's too bad, seeing as I'm not going to moving from here," Dinah said lightly. Her voice though, quickly turned serious. "Do you want to explain what happened up there?"

"No," I whispered. I turned to face the blonde woman. "No, not really. And plus, as if I would want to explain it to a stranger," I added nastily.

Dinah sighed but didn't meet my eyes. "We can help you," she said quietly. "The Justice League can help you. We can help you learn more about your gift."

I ripped my gaze away from hers. "It's not a gift," I murmured. "You have no idea how that 'gift' has tormented me the past two weeks."

"We can teach you to control it," Dinah said softly.

"You know, you really should listen to her," piped up another voice and I groaned, slapping my head into my hands. Oh not now. Why was it that she always had to come at the most inopportune times?

"Oh shut up," I muttered to the ghost. "I don't want to."

"Sanna," Dinah sighed, and I realized that she thought that I was talking to her. Oops. "That is, if Sanna is actually your real name. If your gift is tormenting you so much, then why wouldn't you want to learn control?"

"I have to say, though," the ghost continued thoughtfully, "that that was actually more impressive than I thought it would be. You looked so cool, no pun intended! Your eyes started glowing bright green and the ice! I mean, I was told that it was going to be impressive, but even I didn't imagine something like that."

I ignored her. I was not in the mood to deal with her right now. And besides, having a conversation with a real person and a ghost whom only I could see was too much for me to handle.

"Fine," I muttered to Dinah. "I'll go with you to wherever the hell you want to take me, but only if I'm allowed to leave whenever I want and only if you tell me who you are."

"I'm Dinah," the woman repeated. She turned to me with a light smile. "But you might know me a little better as Black Canary."

…

Dinah decided to take Sanna through the back entrance to the Hall of Justice, seeing as there was now a news crew, an ambulance, one of the representatives of the League, and a ridiculous amount of people standing in the way between the bottom of the steps and the front doors.

The girl was hunched over, and her face and skin were still deathly pale, but the trembling of her body had stopped at least and her eyes had dulled down once again back to their normal colour. Dinah had been coming up the steps when the commotion had started. She had run over to the fallen man, ready to perform CPR, but had found Sanna simply sitting there, her eyes closed and her hands pressed over the man's chest as though the man's chest was the only thing keeping her grounded.

The whole crowd, which had been so loud before, had gone eerily silent as tendrils of ice started weaving up Sanna's arms and a soft glow began to emanate from her hands and even Dinah had gasped in wonder. And when Sanna had opened her eyes, her eyes that were normally a dull emerald colour, they had been glowing an ethereal green. And for a moment, just a moment, Sanna with her fiery hair, glowing eyes, and pale skin, had looked like some sort of avenging angel.

Dinah was pretty sure that it was an image that she would never ever forget.

She glanced over at the girl, who was trudging along, defeat evident in every step that she took. Where had that girl gone that had looked like an angel? Dinah sighed. Even if Sanna didn't appreciate her gift _yet_, Dinah was going to make sure that one day, it became something that was an accepted part of her. In fact, that was why Dinah had fully revealed herself to the girl. Others on the team might say to her that it was a reckless decision, and she supposed that it in some ways, it was reckless. After all, superheroes tended to not go around revealing themselves to random people, but Dinah had the feeling that this was going to be worth it.

Her phone vibrated suddenly in her pocket and Dinah withheld an annoyed curse. It was no doubt Batman or some other League member checking up on her. They had no doubt found out exactly what had happened on the steps of the Hall of Justice and were calling to make sure that she did in fact have Sanna. She reluctantly fished her phone out of her pocket and pressed the answer button.

"Black Canary, do you have the girl?"

"Wow, not even a hello," she muttered into the receiver. "And by the way, yes I do."

"Good," Batman said. "Take her around the back. We'll be waiting."

"Oh, no you won't be," Dinah jumped in sharply as she glanced over at Sanna. She had a feeling that if any more stress were placed on Sanna's shoulders, the girl would collapse in a heap. "Only you will be there. No one else."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

"Fine," Batman said finally and Dinah breathed out in relief.

…

Dick slowly walked tiredly up the stairs to the entrance of Susannah's small apartment. This past week with the Team had been crazy and as leader of the Team, Dick was feeling the stress a little bit more than everyone else. Wally was still pissed at him about Artemis, and then there was the fact that the entire team was still bitter over Kaldur's 'betrayal'. It had actually gotten so bad, what with all of the rude and snide comments to each other about loyalty, that Dick wasn't even sure that they were a Team anymore. He swore, that if it lasted another week then he was going to have to bring in Black Canary to deal with them all. And he didn't want to have to do that because he was supposed to deal with the Team. They were his responsibility.

His mind went back to the girl that he hadn't seen since last Thursday night. He had actually tried calling her earlier there day. Several times in fact. But she hadn't picked up once. To be honest, Dick was beginning to worry about her. Janina hadn't heard from Susannah all week and despite the fact that she had called Susannah over a dozen times, the girl in question had not once picked up.

As Dick finally reached her door, he found an amusing message written in a small and neat script taped on the front of it. It read:

_Dear Whoever Comes Knocking,_

_I am not here at the moment (duh) and my phone died – like literally fell to pieces in my hands – earlier in the week, so if you are Dick/Artemis/Wally or Janina, stop freaking out. Also, sorry for not coming to school but I've been really busy. In fact, I've gone on an impulsive trip to a city that shall not be mentioned on this note just in case the person reading this is a stalker. I'll be back though._

_Love Susannah xx_

Dick chuckled as he read through the note one more time; his eyes subconsciously lingering on the 'love Susannah' before walking quietly back down the stairs.

...

**Hello friends! Here is my update as promised! I enjoyed writing this chapter seeing as there were a lot of defining moments in there. Let me know what you think! Did you like how it turned out or did you hate it? I'm fine with either :)**

**If you guys have any questions, suggestions or complaints, then I would be glad to hear them!**

**You guys are all awesome and a special thanks to xenocanaan and patattack who have reviewed so often on this story! So thanks a lot! :D**

**Have a nice day wherever you are!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	19. Chapter 19

Batman had been ready to see any girl enter the back of the Hall of Justice with Black Canary. Any girl that is, other than Susannah Brown who looked smaller than she usually did.

At first, Batman had had the whole League here, but after Black Canary's sharp demand, he had sent them all out. Although they were no doubt watching on one of the monitors. At first he wondered why Black Canary would demand for only him to be present, but once he saw her, he understood why.

Susannah was slumped over in exhaustion, and was in mid-yawn when Batman looked at her, but when she gazed up at him, she had stared with a defiance that he hadn't expected from someone who looked so fragile and vulnerable.

Batman had done his research on Susannah Brown seeing as she was girl whom Bruce Wayne was sponsoring. In fact, he knew everything about her and everything that he had managed to find out about her was completely and utterly normal.

Which was why he was surprised to see her standing with Black Canary and looking nothing like the beautiful, confident and graceful dancer that he had seen only weeks before.

Susannah shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of Batman's gaze. She felt like she was being subjected to some sort of horrible examination.

"Are you actually going to ask me something instead of just staring at me like I'm some sort of criminal? Because I know that I'm a freak and everything, but the one thing that I am not, is a criminal," she said defensively.

"What's your name?" he barked at her finally.

"Why do you care?" she muttered sullenly, staring at the ground. "Besides, I'm guessing that you already know what it is anyway."

Batman folded his arms and narrowed his eyes on Susannah.

"You know that taking steroids are bad for you right?" she blurted out suddenly.

Batman glared at her ferociously and didn't answer the question, but he heard Black Canary snicker quietly behind her hand from behind him.

Susannah openly smirked and Batman's features hardened. He didn't like being made fun of. Which could actually be considered to be extremely ironic seeing as he was always being made fun of in the media.

"Because if you want us to help you," Batman growled out, "then it might be in your best interest to tell us what your name is. Whether or not I already know your name isn't important."

"Fine. Whatever. It's Susannah Brown." She shifted from foot to foot again, looking around the small and cramped back room. "Look, do you have a chair or anything in this place?"

"If you're tired, then there's the ground," Batman said coldly.

Susannah shrugged and plopped down on the ground with a groan of relief. "Fine by me," she said tiredly.

…

Batman was a large and scary person, I thought privately to myself as I surveyed him out of the corner of my eye. No wonder bad guys were so bloody frightened of him when he looked like a freaking giant. Not to mention the fact that he looked pretty badass as well, what with all of the dark clothing, mask, and muscles, but I would never say that to his face. He was probably egotistical enough as it was. Besides, this man was probably going to decide what was going to happen to me, so pissing him off might not be the smartest thing to do at this point at time.

"Have you finished ignoring me, yet?" a cheerful voice said, and I felt a shiver slither down my spine as the ghost fully appeared next to me on the ground.

"No," I growled, turning away from her childishly. "Leave me alone."

"Well, you're going to want to talk about it sometime soon," she shrugged. "Besides, I bet that all of the questions that you have right now are eating you up from the inside. I mean, I could answer them for you if you asked nicely…" she trailed off.

Ha, I thought to myself savagely. As if I was ever going to be nice to _her._ She was the one who got me into this entire mess!

Okay, perhaps she didn't and perhaps it wasn't her fault, but she was still the catalyst to this entire bloody situation!

"Give me one reason why I should ask nicely," I hissed at her, "because from the way that I see it, you're the reason why I'm in this entire freaking mess! If you had never shown up, then I wouldn't be here right now!"

She looked insulted. "It's not my fault that you're a freak," she said snappishly.

I glared at her heatedly before turning my head away from her triumphant face. For once she had said something that I actually agreed with.

"I guess that you got that right," I murmured quietly.

"Miss Brown?"

I jumped suddenly at the call of my name and briefly wondered if they had heard me speaking with the ghost.

"Yes," I squeaked, scrambling quickly to my feet.

"We're going to send you home tonight, but tomorrow, expect a visit from one of the League. Tomorrow, we expect answers."

"But what if I don't have any answers to give," I shot back crossly, suddenly extremely annoyed with the Dark Knight. "Because I have no bloody idea why I'm a freak all of a sudden and you honestly can't expect me to just instinctively know why."

"No," Batman admitted, "you can't know, but we aim to find out."

"And what if I don't want to find out?"

"Because, if you didn't want to find out the extent of your powers, then I don't think that you would have let Black Canary drag you here in the first place," Batman said critically. "Black Canary will take you home."

I glanced at Black Canary who gave me a small encouraging nod, before grudgingly agreeing and allowing her to walk me out of the back of the Hall of Justice.

Once we had walked a little bit of a way from the Hall of Justice, I asked Dinah where we were actually heading, but she didn't answer. Instead she asked, "Are you okay?"

Her light blue eyes penetrated mine and I looked away awkwardly. "I suppose," I muttered, wrapping my thin jacket around me as a particularly cold wind blew around us. "I mean, as good as someone can be after bringing someone back from the dead."

"But it's not just that, is it?" Dinah questioned me softly. "You were going to go the Hall of Justice today for a completely different reason, weren't you?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I was." I took a deep breath. "This might sound kind of crazy," I started nervously, twisting my hands in the sleeves of my jacket, "but I can see ghosts. Like actual real live ghosts." I gave a short, grim laugh. "There's this one that keeps following me around and, I swear to God, she's so annoying! At first I was convinced that I had some sort of mental illness or a brain tumour or something and I went to the doctor about it, but," I swallowed, remembering my rather unpleasant experience at the doctor's office, "but he didn't find anything, so then I was certain that I had just lost my mind. But then she, the ghost that is, started speaking about a group that I had to approach… And that's why I came here today. To approach you people. But, I lost my nerve when I saw you," I added ruefully.

Dinah walked in silence for a moment, carefully taking in what I said. "How long have you been able to see her?" she asked curiously.

I shrugged vaguely. "A couple of weeks, I guess."

"Can you call any others?"

"I don't know. I never really tried." I paused. "You think that I'm crazy, right?"

Dinah was silent for a long while. "No, I really don't. You might think that I'm lying, but I'm honestly not. Just because you have a gift does not mean that you're a freak or any more crazy than the rest of us."

"But how don't you know that I just have some sort of horrible brain dysfunction."

"Because of what I saw earlier today. No one can do that unless they are gifted. You're gifted, Sanna," Dinah said softly. "You just have to see that for yourself."

…

The Zeta tube freaked me out and as soon as I exited it and realized that I was back in Gotham in the space of a few seconds, I was torn as to whether I should hate it – seeing as literally broke your body up into tiny particles – or whether I should like it – because it made travelling so much easier!

"Do you travel like that everywhere?" I asked Dinah curiously.

She chuckled. "Only when there's one available," she said, her eyes twinkling. "I have to say though, I've never really grown too fond of them, but they certainly have their uses."

I nodded in vague agreement, still trying to get over the fact that I had literally just been a bunch of matter. I looked around myself dazedly and suddenly realised where we were. "Um, you don't have to walk me back," I said awkwardly. "I recognise this area. In fact, I don't actually live that far away from here."

She offered me a soft smile. "Trust me, you won't be taking any time out of my schedule. Besides, Gotham's a dangerous place and Batman has other places to be tonight."

"But aren't there other heroes in Gotham, like Robin and Nightwing and Batgirl?" I asked interestedly. I had to admit that I only knew about those three due to some serious research in the past couple of days and some obsessive online stalking, but it had been somewhat fruitful at least.

I swear, if anyone happened to look at my search history on my battered laptop, they would probably think that I was some sort of superhero diehard. But hey, it was hard to find information about those three! Especially Batgirl. Dude, it took me hours of searching before I could even find a scrap of information that was actually worth noting! And don't even get me started on Nightwing. I don't even want to tell you how I stared at my computer looking like a hyped up squirrel as I gleefully - I was running on 3 hours of sleep, okay! - found pictures of him scattered all over the internet. There was even a Nightwing fan page in which girls put up messages saying ridiculous things like, 'Oh Nightwing! I want to soar into the darkness with you because I'm sure that you'll take me to parts of the night where even you haven't been!"

I nearly fell off the chair laughing when I read that one.

"Yes," Dinah said cryptically, and I was brought back to the conversation with a start. "There are those three, but as far as I know, Robin is busy, Nightwing is taking a well deserved night off, and well, I have no idea where Batgirl is right now."

"Why are you even telling me this?" I asked bluntly. "Isn't it all supposed to be top secret or something like that?

Dinah shrugged. "Why not? It's not as though you know who any of those people are or where they live. Besides, I trust you," she said simply.

"Why? You don't even know me."

"I don't have to know a person to know whether they're a threat or not." She tapped her temple casually. "Being in the superhero business means having to make split second decisions regarding people and knowing whether or not they have ill intentions or good ones. It's what makes us effective. It's what makes us separate the bad guys from the good ones."

"I suppose," I said uncertainly.

"So Sanna, huh? Have you been called that your whole life?"

I let a small smile touch my lips. "No, actually one of my friends came up with it. I don't actually like it and I don't know why I used it, but it was the first thing that I thought of."

…

"I have another potential candidate for the team," Bruce said conversationally at the dinner table. It was past 10:30pm, but hey, it was never too late for dinner right?

Dick glanced up at Bruce curiously. "Who?"

Bruce gave Dick a blank stare. "You'll see for yourself tomorrow, but she's untrained, so she'll have to be trained by someone. Her powers though are something else entirely… I'm not even sure if she knows the extent of them but I think that once she knows how to use them, she could be a very effective asset to the team."

Dick stared at Bruce with a calculating gaze. "Why are you telling me this?" he said finally. "You often don't bring up our 'after hours job' at the dinner table of all places?"

Bruce took a small sip of his ice-cold water. "I'm telling you this, because I want you to prepare yourself and the rest of the team as well. I'm bringing her in at around 12 tomorrow. And don't worry about school. I've already sorted it out."

Dick raised his eyebrows. "I'll call them all in early then. I have a new training regime that I want to try out for tomorrow anyway."

* * *

**Hey friends! How are you all?  
I hope that you all enjoyed this latest instalment and the next chapter is being worked on as we speak and it's definitely going to be much longer than this unusually short one! So, if you have any questions, complaints, etc. then don't hesitate to contact me!  
Also, thanks for all the support you guys! You're all awesome and amazing :)**

**Coming up: Susannah finds out more stuff about her powers, Dick finds out that Susannah is the new team member, and M'gann gets excited to - not only be introduced into this story for the first time - meet Susannah!**

**We're coming up into some interesting bits now people, and I'm going to be introducing the plot line of Season 2. I've already started integrating it here and there so far, but now it's actually going to be properly noticeable! **

**Anyway! Have a nice day wherever you may be :)**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	20. Chapter 20

That night, I didn't sleep at all. I kept tossing and turning in bed, and so eventually just gave up on the whole idea of getting any rest.

I sighed and took another sip of my now lukewarm tea, my knee bouncing up and down like it was a having a seizure. In reality though, I was just simply extremely nervous.

I had been toying with the idea of spontaneously leaving all night, but my conscience kept making stay. I had literally put together a bag and everything and it kept staring at me from its spot on the bed as though it was screaming at me. I mean, it might seem crazy to the average person that I would leave my university and my apartment at the drop of a hat, but I was desperate. I was so desperate to just leave and try to pretend like this entire thing never even happened. But I couldn't make myself walk out of the front door. Not to mention, my better judgment kept saying that if I left, my little _problem_ would only get worse instead of better. Which was true. Most likely.

These people, the freaking Justice League of all people, wanted to help me and I almost wanted to let them. Almost. I got to my feet and started pacing around my apartment. Leave or not to leave… I hadn't seen my parents in months because the train ticket was more expensive than I could currently afford and even though my family was doing much better financially thanks to Bruce Wayne, I still didn't want to have to ask them for money. Asking for money from my own parents seemed to be like I was going to be giving up. The whole idea of living on my own was so that I would be independent of my family; so that I could live and experience and become more mature in a world that our schools never really taught us about. I didn't want to ask them for money at all.

I let out a frustrated yell.

"Angry?" a small voice teased.

I growled as I turned around to face my 'friend.' "What I wouldn't give to throttle you right now," I hissed at her.

She pouted. "That's not very nice," she said in a singsong voice, as she flipped her ghostly hair over her shoulder. "Trying to kill someone who's already dead... If only you knew what type of power you've been gifted with! Maybe you would perhaps be a little bit more grateful."

"Oh shut up," I spat. "I've told you before and I'll tell you again. The reason that everything's turned to shit in my life right now is because of you. Understand?"

She smirked widely. "Stop shouting to yourself. You might look like you've gone insane!" She suddenly burst out laughing and I glared at her. "Get it? Get it?" she giggled hysterically. "You're not insane but you look like you actually are because only you can see me!" She howled with glee and I scoffed at her idiotic reaction.

"I hate you," I said bluntly.

"And you really really suck!" she shot back, as she wiped away imaginary tears from laughing so hard.

"You know that you're not actually crying, right?" I pointed out to her dryly."Plus, that was the worst insult that I've ever heard, ghost-girl."

"Whatever," she said snootily.

I made a face at her. "What's your name anyway? You keep bothering me, so I should at least know your name. Plus you know my name so I think that I at least should know yours."

She glared at me. "I'm not telling you."

I shrugged, suddenly completely over arguing with her. I gazed over at the clock. It was getting late. Although I have to say, it would have been a lot later if I hadn't traveled by that tube thing.

So I decided to do something that I hadn't done in months. I grabbed my laptop and opened up Skype. Luckily for me, _she_ was on and I clicked the button for a video call.

"Cynthia," I signed to her. Cynthia was my best friend, although there was just one thing about her. She was deaf.

Cynthia simply glared at me across the camera and I winced. It had been way too long since I had last contacted her.

"Sorry," I signed sheepishly.

"_You should be!_" she signed back violently. "_I haven't seen or heard from you in fucking ages!_"

That was another thing about my blonde haired friend. She could be rather coarse when she wanted to be and, well, that was nearly all the time.

"Sorry, but I've been busy."

"_We've all been busy_."

"Well, I apologised! You can either accept it or reject it."

There was a pause. "_Fine_."

"So what's been happening lately?"

"_A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I'm halfway through my novel now."_

I grinned widely. "Awesome!"

"_And I'm dating a guy._"

My jaw dropped. "WHAT? Tell me everything? How long for? Is he hot?"

_"__Oh shut up,"_ she signed, although her cheeks turned slightly pink. "_But if you must know, I've been dating him for the last three weeks. It seems to be working out now, but who can guess for the future? And about his looks, he is so smoking hot! In my opinion anyway. Others would probably see him… as an average guy. He's got brown hair, he's short – but then so am I – and he's got the sweetest brown eyes ever with glasses! I never thought that someone like me, who's deaf and totally average would be able to find a guy like Andy." _Cynthia sighed dreamily across the line and my grin grew much wider. Wow. This Andy guy must be some sort of wonder guy if he even made Cynthia act all placid and romantic. Now I really had to meet him. "_He even likes all the same comics that I like!_"

"He sounds wonderful," I sign back.

"_He is. So, what's been happening up at your end? Dating any guys?"_

I shook my head. "No. I'm too busy going insane."

We signed to each other a long time, going into the early hours of the morning. It was nice to catch up with Cynthia again. She had been my rock and my friend for so many years now and I still missed her because even though I had friends at Gotham University, I didn't really know much about them and they didn't really know much about me. I didn't have anyone whom I could really confide in.

When I said goodbye, after making a firm promise that this was something that we were going to be doing every week, I sat back on my bed and relaxed for the first time in what felt like eternity. All of my troubles had disappeared and my mind was filled with completely irrelevant and silly things like cakes, and romance novels, and cats. I smirked at the thought of a cat. Cynthia had a cat now and its name was Mars. I had managed to catch a glimpse of him via Skype, and he was ridiculously cute. I sighed. Maybe when I finally managed to escape this mess, I would be able to get my own cat and name him Pluto.

I yawned widely and made my way over to my small bedside table before hooking it up to the charger. As I padded my way back to my bed, my eyes laid upon the bag that I had set out earlier. It was full to the brim of clothes and other items that I deemed important in case I decided to run away.

Because that's what I would have been doing. I would have been someone who runs away. And I was not that type of person. Not anymore, I thought grimly to myself.

I walked determinedly over to the cloth bag and tipped it upside down, letting everything that I had piled in there so frantically a couple of hours ago, fall to the floor. I tossed the bag to the side and started picking everything up. No, I was not someone who ran away. And with that, I changed quickly into my sleep clothes and hopped under my covers.

…

I tried my best to fall asleep. I honestly did. But no matter which way I turned or how many times I hit my pillow, I wasn't able to fall into oblivion. The seconds passed incredibly slowly and the hours even more so until I finally gave up.

I pushed myself blearily out of bed and put on some dark clothes. Yep, it may be Gotham and it may be 4am, but I was going for a walk. A stupid decision, I know. But I needed something to do. Besides, my fighting skills had improved vastly and I knew the area much better than when I had first set out. But that still didn't mean that my decision was particularly smart.

I trudged down the stairs of my apartment block as quietly as I could manage. Outside it was crisp and cold and I found it a welcome difference from the stale and stuffy air of my flat. I walked lightly along the pathways of Gotham city, sticking to the shadows of the decrepit old buildings. As I walked, I heard the occasional yell, the shatter of broken glass, a child screaming loudly in the distance. I shivered and pulled my hood tighter down over my face. From behind me, there was the faint sound of footsteps.

Wait what? Footsteps?

Adrenaline instantly flooded my veins and I froze to a stop on the concrete, listening as the steps came closer and closer. My body was screaming at me to run, but my thoughts were different and I suddenly had a vague desire to see who it was that tried to follow me. As I turned around, I saw a scraggly woman.

She was small, but her skin was incredibly sallow and her hair oily in the light of the streetlamps and even though she looked skinny, I had the feeling that she was deceptively strong.

I swallowed my fear. "Who are you?" I had hoped to sound somewhat threatening and annoyed but my voice sounded like it was breaking instead.

The woman snarled at me, showing a grim set of yellow teeth. "Why do you want to know, pretty girly?"

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could manage. My heart was beating loudly in my chest. "I just wanted to know why someone would want to follow me. I mean, I'm just a regular girl."

There was a moment's silence between us before the woman leapt at me. "Regular girl my ass! If you were a regular girl, you would be holed up inside your bedroom. But seeing as you're out here now, you may as well give me everything that you have on you seeing as you were stupid enough to come out at this time. So Give me your money!" she howled. "And your clothes as well! I haven't worn warm clothes in months!"

I ducked under her grabbing hand and glared at her. I still wanted to run in the other direction, but now, this crazy lady was beginning to make me mad. She reached out to grab my hand but I dodged. Yep, now was my time to run away as the woman made another grab for me. But this time, she caught me around the neck.

"Get off me!" I screamed loudly as her fingers began to close around my throat.

The woman cackled madly. "The only way you'll be escaping," she hissed at me, "is through death."

My skin suddenly turned very cold as I allowed anger and fear to fill me up and I started shaking violently.

"Get. Off. Me," I said quietly. The air between us was growing colder.

The woman began to look afraid and for the first time, I noticed that tendrils of ice were beginning to make their way up her skinny arm and her hand was beginning to turn black. I started hyperventilating. Oh my god. Not again. Not again.

Not again.

The screams of the woman suddenly started fading and the sound of wheezing began to come out of her mouth. I stumbled backwards, my whole body shaking minutely as I watched the ice begin its trail up the woman's body. I began to hyperventilate. Why wouldn't it stop? Why couldn't I control it? The woman suddenly let go of my neck. She sank to the ground, breathing hard and rubbing at the ice that had trailed up her arms. Her skin around her hands was beginning to turn back to its normal, ashen colour.

I stood rock still, gasping myself from my near suffocation, still unbelieving of what had just happened. In fact, what the hell had just happened? Had I been… killing her?

Oh my god. I had been killing her. I stepped back.

"Who are you?" the woman gasped from the pavement, her eyes wide with panic.

"I..." I stuttered. "I don't know." I took another step back before I turned away and fled.

It seemed, that not only could I save life, I could also take it away.

By the time I reached my apartment I was out of breath and absolutely exhausted. Tears had etched their way into my cheeks and I wiped at them furiously as I opened the door to my flat. I literally had to hold my hand to open the door because it was shaking so much. I stumbled up the stairs, not really caring where I placed my feet. It was around 9am now. Only an hour until Dinah arrived to pick me up. And in that time, I had to shower, change, try and calm down my face, and try to relax in general. I knew that it wasn't going to happen though.

I nearly freaking killed someone! That wasn't something that I was going to get over very quickly. My hands were still shaking from the experience.

I washed and changed as though I was in a daze and only stopped moving after I had exhausted any other activities that could be done for the rest of the hour.

…

Dinah traced the same path back to Susannah's apartment that she had taken last night. As she walked, she surveyed the area that the girl lived in. Rubbish littered the streets and graffiti was etched on the walls. The only part that Dinah was at least thankful for was that at least Susannah didn't live in the Narrows. She wasn't very far from them, which was probably why it was a more disgusting area than others.

After she had gotten back to headquarters last night, Susannah had been the topic of discussion within the League. What could she do? What exactly were her powers? Was she dangerous? Could she be a potential asset? Dinah had bristled at the questions. Sometimes the League could be so callous and uncaring and well, downright rude. From what Dinah could see, Susannah was currently in a bad place right now, both physically and mentally, and the League could only care about whether the small redheaded girl was an asset.

Dinah came to a stop in front of Susannah's apartment block and sighed as she rang the bell, hoping that the girl hadn't run away during the night. If it came down to it, the League would be able to track her and find her, but Dinah hoped that it, well, wouldn't come to that.

She rang the call button for Flat 13 and waited for the door to be unlocked. After several seconds of delay, the characteristic buzzing sound rang loudly and she pushed on the door. Dinah walked up the countless steps lightly until she reached the 13th flat and knocked on the door. She heard a soft, "Coming!" echo from within the apartment and the door opened with a loud click.

Susannah turned her face towards Dinah. "Sorry about that." She sounded slightly breathless. "That door can be an absolute pain sometimes."

Dinah smiled. "No problem. So, are you ready?"

Susannah smiled bitterly and Dinah noticed that the girl's hands were shaking. "As ready as a freak can ever be," she muttered.

She started walking out the door but Dinah grabbed her wrist. "Are you okay?" she asked critically, her eyes searching Susannah's face. "Because your hands are shaking and your eyes are puffy. Did you get any sleep at all last night?"

Susannah wrenched her arm out of Dinah's grip. "What do you care?" she snapped. "And don't touch me either. After all, what do you care that I couldn't sleep or nearly freaking killed someone or-"

"I care a great deal," Dinah said softly, but inside she was beginning to worry. "Start from the beginning. What happened last night? You said that you nearly killed someone."

Susannah turned away. "It was an accident," she whispered. "I swear. This woman came at me and wrapped her hands around my throat. And I don't know how but somehow I started doing the ice thing and her skin started turning black and then she couldn't breathe and the crazy lady nearly freaking died!"

"Deep breaths," Dinah said soothingly and she carefully edged towards the distraught girl. So, Susannah's powers also included a self-defence mechanism. That was going to have to get under control, and quickly as well. "This isn't your fault," Dinah said gently. "You may feel guilty now and you may feel guilty forever but it isn't your fault. Your body was obviously trying to protect you from the 'crazy lady' and that's self-defence. Also, you didn't actually kill the woman. I daresay that you scared her, but you didn't kill her." Dinah paused in her talking, noting with satisfaction that Susannah was beginning to calm down. "You know," she continued, swallowing almost nervously for what she was about to reveal, "when I was first discovered my own powers for the first time, I killed one person. The sound waves that I produced were so loud and at such a high frequency that a person died. One person died and those who were affected by my cries lost their hearing for good. There's not one day when I don't think about it. Every single time I use my powers, I always second-guess myself. I always have to be so careful. It's a guilt that I carry with me and it will stay with me forever. I've learned to accept what happened over time, but I don't think that I've ever, truly forgiven myself." Dinah made Susannah turn and face her. "But I'm going to promise this to you. With the help of the League, you will be able to train yourself and your powers so that you no longer need to be afraid of your own body. I promise that to you."

…

Nightwing paced impatiently, glaring at the zeta tube that was supposed to have opened up over half an hour ago for the new girl and Black Canary. He had more more important things to be doing than simply standing around in front of a door! Batman, was of course, as still and as silent as a rock while he waited for them to arrive, something that furthered Nightwing's annoyance.

"They shouldn't be taking this long," Nightwing finally growled. "Do you think that something happened to them along the way?"

"They're coming," was Batman's instant reply. "Although Black Canary did call me and inform me that they were going to be lat."  
"What?" Nightwing's eyes bugged out slightly in annoyance.

"Batman," he said, "you do know what I am currently dealing with at the moment? I do not have the time to stand around in front of doors and-"

"Black Canary" the computer voice ran loudly throughout the empty entrance, disturbing Nightwing's rant.

"Sorry that we were late," Black Canary said brightly, as her eyes critically surveyed the two obviously disgruntled men that were standing in front of the zeta tube. At first, Nightwing didn't notice the small, carrot-haired girl who was huddling behind Black Canary's tall form. "This here, is Susannah," Black Canary continued, stepping out of the way so that the girl could be seen. She looked like a deer caught in headlights when she finally made eye contact.

At first, Nightwing thought that his eyes were playing a trick on him, because that was most certainly not Susannah Brown in front of him. Surely it just had to be a person that had the same name and same appearance as the Susannah he knew?

"Hello," Susannah muttered, glowering at the ground.

Nope, there was no way that this could possibly be the Susannah Brown that he knew. The Susannah Brown he knew was tough, not timid, and definitely did not have any sort of power or other type of fantastical trait.

"So, are you going to get on with this or not," she said blandly. "You said you wanted to test me, so here I am." She suddenly turned her fiery gaze up to glare at Nightwing. "And what the hell do you think you're looking at, Mr. I'm-so-much-better-than-you?"

Holy shit, it was Susannah Brown.

"This is Nightwing," Batman said, his gravelly voice echoing around the chamber. "And he's going to be your mentor. He'll help you to train and to get your abilities under control."

Susannah narrowed her eyes at Batman. "Train? I never agreed to anything like that. I agreed to you helping me out and to get whatever the hell is happening to me under control."

Batman nodded. "You did. Which is why I have assigned Nightwing to be your mentor and guide."

…

"So," M'gann said excitedly, "what do you know about her? It's going to be so nice to have another girl here!"

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Connor muttered angrily. "You've only said that same line, like a thousand times already this morning and I swear, if you say it once more, I'm going to break something." He put on a mocking high-pitched voice. "Oh, I wonder if she likes shopping? I hope that we can be best friends! And blah blah blah, yeah we get it!"

M'gann looked offended. "Well, I'm sorry," she muttered stiffly. Her boyfriend, who hated seeing his beautiful girlfriend's smile turn upside down though, quickly interrupted her brief crossness. He especially hated it when the reason for that frown was Superboy.

"Hey Superboy," L'gann said rudely as he gathered M'gann up in his arms for a hug, "will you stop bothering my beautiful Angelfish? She's excited and you have no reason to go around and start bothering her."

Connor glared at L'gann but rolled his eyes and walked away, muttering – no doubt – curses and other complaints under his breath.

"Just ignore him, Angelfish," L'gann said, making huge love eyes at the pretty alien. "You can be excited as you want to be."

M'gann simply giggled sweetly and thanked him with a light kiss on his lips. "I'm so glad I have you, L'gann."

Behind them, Beast Boy mimed throwing up and Connor smirked.

* * *

**Hello everyone! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but I broke my finger and I had this huge cast thing on my bloody hand and it was nigh impossible for me to type seeing as the my pointer and middle finger were completely immovable. Oh well, nearly all better now. Thank God. I swear, I shall never catch a rugby ball wrong again :P**

**Oh well, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. It's not my most favourite chapter to be honest and I'm not particularly happy with it, but I suppose that I shall have to see what you guys think of it. If you have any questions, complaints, suggestions, etc. then I would be glad to hear from you!**

**Thanks to Elizabeth for getting my ass back into gear with this story! You're awesome :)**

**Back to school for me next week and final year of the IB. Oh God. If any of you readers happen to be doing the IB right now, then I understand how you're feeling. :P My draft of my Extended Essay is due tomorrow morning! (In the holidays still, I know. But that's the IB for you.)**

**Question of the day: What is your most admired fictional character? Books, movies, TV shows... Maybe you have one for each? Hmm... I dunno. Because I love the Marvel stuff, I would probably have to say Agent Carter for me. She's just so awesome and kicks everyone's asses. It's brilliant :P **

**Anyway, thanks for reading and until next time! I hope that you all have a great day!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Tell me why, Batman, and then I might be able to understand your reasoning a little bit better," Nightwing managed to ground out. They were alone, still standing in the entrance hall. Black Canary had taken Susannah away to get her to meet some of the other members of the team, and Nightwing was thankful at the opportunity to speak to his own mentor alone.

"I didn't want your judgment of the situation to be affected," Batman said clearly.

"My judgment? What the hell do you mean, 'my judgment'? As far as I'm aware, I didn't even have any jurisdiction over this decision! And besides, if you didn't want me to be 'affected,' then you didn't succeed!"

Batman seemed to sigh under his sweeping cloak, something that made Nightwing all the more pissed off. "Nightwing. You know the girl. You're similar in age. Use that to your advantage," he replied shortly. "Either way, you're her mentor and unless your identity becomes compromised or there is some other equally as important and serious reason as to why you can no longer train her, then you will stay her mentor."

Nightwing shut his eyes tightly and breathed in deeply, only just keeping his anger at bay. He was definitely going to have to have a date with the gym later.

"Fine," he spat, before turning on his heel and leaving Batman alone in the hall.

Susannah Brown. She was the last person that Nightwing would have ever expected to have powers. But at the same time, it would explain the edgy looks, the weight loss, the rings under her eyes, her secretive behaviour… In fact, Nightwing couldn't believe that he hadn't seen the signs of there something being wrong. He was supposed to be her friend! He should have gone up to her, asked her if everything was okay.

Instead, he had just sat back and watched her slow demise from a distance, never sure if he should approach her or not. Not for the first time, Dick cursed his cowardice. Susannah, especially over the last few months, had slowly been becoming more and more important to him and his actual girlfriend, Janina, was becoming less so. He knew that the relationship with Janina had been a bad decision from the start, especially seeing as she was only an exchange student, but he had wanted a distraction, something to occupy the time that he had left over. So he had foolishly asked Janina out on a date. One date had quickly turned into two, and then two into three and before he knew it, he entered a full, committed relationship with the German exchange student. But Susannah had never really left his mind.

Over the past few weeks, Nightwing found his eyes lingering on her movements, her smiles, her frowns and yet, he had sat back and done nothing while she slowly tore herself from the inside out.

This time, Nightwing couldn't hold himself back and he punched the wall with the all of the force that he could muster.

…

Dinah, because Black Canary was just weird to me, smiled reassuringly, something that made me feel even more uncomfortable than I was. Nevertheless, I tried, and no doubt failed, to smile back. I felt like I was being lead to some sort of intense gathering of weirdoes. I mean, come on. The corridors were dark, the lighting was kind of dim and there was an eerie silence that only broke as the echoes of voices lingered up the halls.

I couldn't keep my mind off of the boy though. Nightwing, Batman had called him. He looked familiar to me and I vaguely remembered the domestic violence event at the house all of those months ago, where he yelled at me. I scowled at the memory. I barely even knew him and I already had a bad impression of him. Plus, the look on his face when Batman revealed to him that he was going to be my mentor was a real stunner.

His lips had turned up in a nasty glower and his entire body had stiffened. It was all too clear to me that he had no interest in dealing with someone as pathetic and freaky as me. It was a shame really, because honestly, not many guys had as great a body as he did. Sigh.

"So, you ready to meet the team?" Dinah's voice broke through my jumbled thoughts as my eyes raced up to meet hers.

"Uh, sure," I said after a moment's hesitation. "Why not?"  
She grinned at me. "That's the spirit," she said cheerfully and she pushed open the door to a large room.

I felt myself freeze as I looked inside for the first time. A couple – of which one person was a vivid green and the other had ginormous bug eyes and fins – was kissing, rather passionately to say the least, on the couch while a cute, dark haired boy was scowling at them from the corner of his eye. A green kid was hanging from the ceiling with a freaking tail, and was making faces above the couple on the couch.

It was such an unbelievable, far-fetched picture, that I immediately burst out laughing. It was the first real laugh that I'd had in weeks, and God, had I missed the beauty that came with it. It was just such a normal scene in such an abnormal place that the idea of it was just incredibly hilarious.

"Oh my God," I gasped, "I haven't laughed so hard in a long time."

Everyone was now looking at me oddly, which hadn't really been the impression that I had been going for, but at this point, I couldn't really bring myself to care very much. My life had just been turned on its head, so I think that I was entitled to a bit of insanity.

Dinah looked at me quizzically, probably wondering why I had laughed so hard, but she introduced me anyway.

"Everyone, this is Susannah. She's the new member of the team, so I trust that you'll treat her properly. Susannah, that is Beast Boy," she said, pointing to the kid that was hanging from the ceiling. He gave me a small wave and flipped himself around to land on his feet.

"Hi," he said, giving me what he probably thought was a flirty grin. It was disturbing.

"That over there is Superboy." Dinah gestured to the scowling, cute dark haired boy in the corner who gave me a grunt of acknowledgement. Well, he was friendly.

"That is-"

"I'm M'gann," the green girl gushed, not even waiting for Dinah's introduction. "I'm so excited to meet you!" And then she literally bounded over to me and enveloped me in a huge hug. Instead of feeling weirded out though, like I normally would when a stranger would come and hug me randomly, I felt more relaxed than I had in a long time. Maybe this whole thing wasn't going to be as bad as I thought it was going to be. "And that over there," the happy green girl continued, "is my boyfriend, L'gann."

The fish kid waved at me and I waved back hesitantly. What the hell was he? A mix between a worm and a frog? A frogworm?

"Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Oh Susannah," M'gann said to me cheerfully, "you're going to be really happy here. I can just feel it."

I smiled weakly in response. So maybe the team wasn't as bad as I originally thought, but that didn't mean that I was going to start spouting rainbows and unicorns because I was just so damn happy.

"Sure," I said halfheartedly.

"We have a room set up and everything for you. I didn't decorate it yet, because I didn't know what you liked, but maybe we can do that later today?"

I nodded, letting her pull me along by my arm, which I hadn't actually realized that she had grabbed.

It only later occurred to me that none of them had asked about what I could do or what my power was and for that, I was extremely grateful.

…

My room was okay, I suppose. Well, that is if you count a stone room with a tiny bed and an old looking shelf and worn chair as okay. I thought that it was fine though. After all, through the huge amount of travelling that I had done as a child, I had stayed in a lot worse.

"If you like," M'gann was saying, "we can get you a new bed and some new shelves because those don't look very good."

I shrugged my shoulder, not really caring. I was happy with pretty much anything. "If that's what you want to do."

M'gann beamed at me. Did that girl ever not smile? "We could go now then?" she suggested hopefully.

"I, uh," I said slightly stunned at her eagerness. There was a reason why I came here and it was not so that I could go back out in public. "Maybe in an hour or two? It's just that," I said quickly, noticing how her expression fell a fraction, "I have a lot to get used to."

She nodded in understanding. "I know exactly how that feels like." She turned to me apologetically and I looked at her in surprise, not used to having seen the solemn expression on her face. "Sorry for being a bit overbearing. It's just that, ever since Artemis left, there haven't been any other girls that I can talk to, so when I heard that you were coming, I got a little… overexcited."

Artemis? That couldn't be the same Artemis that M'gann was referring to, could it.

"Uh, no problem," I said, forcing a smile on my face. "I completely understand. I think that I would go crazy too if I had no one to confide in." My mind was whirring though. Artemis wasn't a common name. Could it really be that the Artemis that I knew was the same Artemis that M'gann knew?

M'gann's whole expression brightened at my comment and I knew that I had just made her day.

"Well, do you want to head out in about an hour or two then? Actually," she amended, "you just come to me when you're ready. Even if it's in a week."

I opened my mouth to reply, but a soft knock sounded at the door and both of our attentions shifted quickly to the person now standing in the middle of it. Oh goody, it was the scowling, Nightwing guy.

M'gann bounced up from the bed. "Hello Nightwing," she said sunnily. "Have you met Susannah yet?"

Nightwing seemed to glare at me from behind his mask. I simply glared back defiantly.

"Yeah," he said simply, his voice low. He cleared his throat. "In fact, I'm going to be her new mentor."

M'gann clapped her hands together and turned to me. "That's great! Trust me, Susannah, Nightwing is the best of the best. There's no possible way that you could have a better mentor."

I personally thought that Dinah would have been a much better mentor, but I wasn't really in a democracy anymore, was I? Nope, I was in a freaking dictatorship where Batman ruled all and all those who received the glares of doom were, well, doomed.

Nightwing though, ignored M'gann's comment, which I though was rather rude. "Susannah," he said, looking directly at me, "normally I would let you settle in a bit before starting training, but Batman and Black Canary would like for me to start your training program as soon as possible."

M'gann looked at me regretfully. "See you later then, Susannah… and Nightwing, just because you're the best doesn't mean that you get to work her until she drops!"

I raised an eyebrow. Work till I drop, huh? Maybe, in the state that I was at the moment, that wasn't really such a bad idea. Maybe I would be able to work off some bad energy.

Nightwing, however, smirked arrogantly. "Don't worry, M'gann, I won't."

She rolled her eyes before walking out of the room and Nightwing gestured for me to follow him in a different direction. So I reluctantly pulled myself off the bed and slumped out of the room.

"I'm just going to be doing basic testing. I need to see the levels of your fitness. According to your file, it says that you dance?"

I nodded mutely. Of course they would have looked at my files. And my life history. And every other little thing that they could get their hands on.

My response, however, seemed to brighten up Nightwing up and I scowled at the ground.

"That's good," he said with a small nod, as we turned down another hallway. We walked the rest of the way to the gym in silence. I didn't really know how I felt about the whole base being in a mountain. Everything was slightly wet and humid and the idea of being surrounded by stone on a 24-hour basis made me slightly nervous. I absently wondered what the gym would look like. It was probably going to be super modern and filled with the latest greatest, state of the art equipment. This was the Justice League after all, and I was pretty sure that they wasted absolutely no expense on making sure that they had the best technology that the market had to offer.

My musing, to some extent, had been correct. When I first entered the huge facility, I openly gaped at the size of it. I had been in several gyms before, but this one topped the cake by far. Gym mats covered the ground and even the sides, making it look like a giant, padded room, and gym equipment ranging from traditional materials all the way to gymnastic equipment filled the entire space. There were even nets and trapeze swings hanging from the ceiling. All in all, it must have cost an absolute fortune.

"Change rooms, are down that corridor and to the left," Nightwing instructed me suddenly, breaking my reverie from the huge room. "You'll find some workout clothes sitting on the bench for you."

Oh, well that was kind of them.

"Thanks," I muttered, before heading off in the direction in which he pointed me. I could feel the strength of his gaze follow me down the entire hallway and I was grateful when I finally reached the woman's dressing room. As Nightwing had said, a pair of shorts and a sport t-shirt lay on one of the benches. There was a piece of paper with my name on it sitting just above the clothes. I sighed and pulled off my own clothes before reluctantly pulling on the ones that they had given me. They were snug on me, making me want to forcefully stretch them out. I hated tight workout clothes.

I glared at myself in one of the many mirrors. I looked like shit to say the least. My eyes were ringed with black, my normally vibrant hair hung lankly, and I was pale and gaunt looking, and with the added tautness of the clothes, the outline of my rib bones was showing. I hadn't even realized that I had lost so much weight. I bit back a bitter laugh. My mum would have a heart attack if she set eyes on me. I wrenched my gaze from the mirror before stalking out of the change room. I didn't want to look at myself anymore.

I slowly retraced my steps back to the gym, suddenly feeling completely drained. The last couple of days for me had been some of the worst days in my life and now I had to do a bloody fitness test on top of it all?

I stepped tentatively back into the gym.

"Finally," Nightwing said, his voice clipped as he looked me over. I swear that his eyes stopped briefly on my ribs, but I wasn't sure. "You have five minutes warm-up time before we start."

I plopped myself on the ground and started stretching out my calf muscles. "So do you guys walk around in spandex all the time?" I asked innocently. God, I hoped that I wouldn't have to do that. How embarrassing. Although admittedly, I thought to myself as I snuck a look over at my new mentor, the spandex outfit didn't really look all that bad on Nightwing.

Oh for goodness sake, I cannot believe that I just thought that. It was the tiredness speaking, I swear.

Nightwing gave me a look. "No. Around the base we do, but otherwise, we just wear street clothes. We do all have lives outside of the League."

"Wow, really," I said sarcastically. "I never would have guessed."

Nightwing simply glared at me.

"Uh, so how long have you been in the League?"

"A while," Nightwing said shortly. He sighed suddenly. "Look, Susannah, we don't have to do this today. I can work something out with Batman and Black Canary, because to be honest, you look like you need a good night's sleep."

Ha, no kidding. But I had put on the clothes and everything. Besides, it wasn't as though I would actually sleep anyway. Plus, this was going to give me a chance to burn off all of the negative energy that I had. "No, let's just do it," I said eventually. The sooner, the better, right?

Nightwing simply looked at me suspiciously, doubting my reply.

"Honestly," I insisted. "Just because I look like crap does not mean that I can't do anything."

At that comment, Nightwing smirked. "In that case then, I want you up on that treadmill. Put the setting on eight, and just run for as long as you can."

"Just run?" I said skeptically.

He nodded. "Just run. Are you sure you can handle that?"

I glared at him. "I think I can manage a little bit of running."

Several minutes later, I was already breathing slightly heavier than I would like, which I thought was absolutely pathetic of me. It seemed that the sleepless nights hadn't only done wonders for my body, but wonders for my fitness as well! Oh joy! (Hear my sarcasm there?).

"Having fun?"

I nearly fell off the treadmill at the remark, glaring at my ghostly companion who was swinging upside down on one of the bars that hung from the ceiling.

"You know, you don't look so good."

I ignored her. I had already embarrassed myself enough today and I didn't really need my mentor to know how crazy I was. Although he probably knew anyway.

"Hey, why won't you talk to me?" The ghost now hovered in front of the treadmill, but I deliberately turned my gaze in a different direction. Maybe if I pretended that she didn't exist, she would go away. "Is it because of that hunk of man meat over there?" I saw the ghost waggle her eyebrows at Nightwing and I nearly snorted in hysterical laughter. "I have to say, he is pretty cute." She sighed wistfully. "If I had lived, I would have found myself someone just like him."

"You alright over there, Susannah?" the wary voice of Nightwing echoed over to me. I saw the ghost slowly disappear in my periphery vision. Oh well, at least she knew when she wasn't wanted.

I turned my head over to him, scowling as I saw what he was doing. The annoying bastard was doing pushups. A lot of pushups.

What a show off.

"I'm fine," I gritted out.

"Just stop whenever you need to."

"I got it."

And that's how it continued. For the next fifteen minutes, while I ran on the treadmill, he did hundreds of pushups, sit ups, and if that wasn't bad enough, he then decided to do chin-ups as well.

What a nutcase.

* * *

**Hey people! Sorry for the late update - 2 months?! How did time pass that quickly? - but I have literally been snowed under by all the schoolwork that I have at the moment. **

**Seriously friends, the IB doesn't stuff around. Bio test next week, maths the week after, absolute huge, ginormous extended essay final copy due in a week and a half + all of my German work... Not cool. **

**Oh well, here is the update. I feel kinda guilty, because I could have updated this a week ago, but I like to have a large part of the next chapter already written so that then I can pick it up again when I have the time to write.  
I hope that you guys all liked it and if you have any questions or requests or complaints or anything like that, just contact me and I will do my best to appease you! **

**Also, thanks to the guest reviewer Elizabeth, whose email I saw this morning, for the support and reminders that you give me. Because honestly, if it weren't for you, then this story probably wouldn't have been updated for the next couple of days or weeks. So thanks!  
**

**I hope that you all have a great day no matter where you are in the world! ****  
**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


	22. Chapter 22

Nightwing watched, carefully assessing her as she finally stepped off the treadmill. To be honest, he had thought that she was going to stop over five minutes ago, but she had kept placing one foot in front of the other. Nightwing didn't know whether he was annoyed that she had no regard for her own health or proud that she was able to keep pushing through.

"You good?" he asked her as he saw her sway slightly.

"Yeah," she snapped, crossing her arms defensively over her chest. Before this, Nightwing had never actually realized how distrustful Susannah really was. He wasn't sure if she was always like this, or whether she was a good enough actress to hide her true emotions and feelings from the world. But then and again, he thought to himself, after going through a change like she had just undergone, one was entitled to be moody. As long as it didn't last too long, then he was going to be fine with it.

"Well, we're done for today," he said finally, as he eyed her suspiciously. If he was honest with himself, he should never have allowed her to step foot in the gym. He should have immediately disregarded what Batman and Black Canary had said to him and should have just ordered her to get some sleep, seeing as she looked like a literal zombie. "Go and get dressed," he said. "And then go and get some sleep. You look like you need it."

She scowled deeply at him. "Thanks," she muttered. "That's exactly what a girl wants to hear." But she wandered off in direction of the change rooms, very much to his relief. He didn't feel like having a verbal sparring match with Susannah Brown.

As he waited for her to come out of the dressing room, Nightwing wandered aimlessly around the gym, his mind drifting to more serious matters.

The situation with the Light was slowly building in intensity and soon, he was going to have to bring Artemis in. Wally was still completely pissed at him for going to Artemis behind his back, but Nightwing swallowed back the guilt. If he had gone to Wally first, then Artemis would never have agreed to do the job, because despite the fact that she was a very independent woman, she still valued the feelings and emotions of her boyfriend very highly, and by going to her first, it had allowed her to make up her mind free of the emotional pressure that Wally would have provided.

Nightwing sighed and rubbed his temples. He hadn't heard from Aqualad in several weeks. He had missed their last check-in time and Aqualad hadn't tried to contact him since. Nightwing desperately hoped that he was okay. So much was riding on Aqualad's successful infiltration into the Light, and if he had been caught, then the consequences… Nightwing didn't even want to think about it. He hated this. He hated hiding things from the team and the events that were coming up, such as faking Artemis's death he thought grimly to himself, were going to do nothing for his stress levels. Why had he ever agreed to do this?

And now there was the added problem of Susannah Brown. Because that's what she was. She was an unwelcome, pretty, stubborn, problem that only added to Nightwing's stress levels. How on earth was he supposed to deal with a girl, whom he wasn't sure he had feelings for or not, with out of control powers that he had yet to see?

Nightwing scowled at the ground. Sometimes he regretted his career choice.

…

I pulled on my dirty clothes tiredly, vaguely wondering where the League kept their laundry, because I could not walk around in these clothes any longer. They were stained with dirt and mud and were still filled with the horror that I had experienced with that lady in the alley. I shivered as her stricken face assaulted my mind again, before pushing the entire incident out of my thoughts.

I really had to stop thinking about that.

I padded out of the change room, exhaustion filling every part of my body. But I didn't want to sleep. Sleep meant nightmares.

"Are we leaving?" I asked tiredly to Nightwing, as I entered the gym.

He turned around to face me. "Let's go. You should get some sleep."

I shrugged. "Don't need to sleep."

Nightwing gave me a patronising glare. "Really?"

"Yes," I muttered.

Silence fell between us as we entered the earthy corridors again. "What's going to happen with my schooling?" I said finally.

"Batman said that he organised something," Nightwing replied gruffly.

"And my jobs?"

"He said that he took care of them as well."

I scowled at the ground. Batman didn't have the right to rule my life. "And do I not get a say in anything that happens to me?"

Nightwing didn't answer that one. It looked like we were all pawns in Batman's game. Goody.

"So, do you like it here so far?"

I looked at him sharply, not expecting the question. "No."

"You know," he said slowly, "it's not that bad once you get used to it."

"Well, I don't want to get used to it," I said somewhat bitterly. "All I want to do is leave." I knew that I was acting childishly, but I had a right to be. After all, everything in my life, every bit of normalcy that I knew and that I had enjoyed was now gone and I knew that I was never going to get that back.

"Really? If you hadn't wanted to be here, then why did you let Black Canary bring you here?"

I glowered at the ground, not able to come up with a snarky retort for his comment. The problem was, though, was that it was the dreadful truth. If I truly hadn't wanted to be here, then I could have made the decision not to come at all. Yet, I had done. I wondered if I was going to regret it.

I almost scoffed. Who was I kidding? I was definitely going to regret it.

We arrived at my tiny room. The bed, even though it looked hard, looked incredibly appealing to my eyes.

"Hey, uh, Nightwing," I said unexpectedly, surprising even myself, "you don't happen to have access to any sleeping meds, do you?"

If Nightwing was surprised at my request, he didn't show it. Instead, he folded his arms across his chest in way that I assumed that he thought was intimidating. His intimidation method succeeded. "Why do you need sleeping pills?"

I groaned in frustration. "Do you really need to know why?"

Nightwing pretended to contemplate my question, before a sharp, "Yes."

I sighed and flopped down onto my bed. Just as I expected, it was hard and lumpy. "I'm not sleeping well at the moment," I mumbled.

"Sorry? I didn't quite get that?" Nightwing said innocently.

I scowled at him. "You know exactly what I said. So do you have any?"

"I'll talk it over with Black Canary and Batman."

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. "For God's sake, they're just sleeping pills!"

Nightwing sighed. "I know that they're sleeping pills, Susannah."

Suddenly, the hidden implications of his words hit me like a brick in the chest. There was no way that he would assume that I would… Holy shit. That's exactly what he thought.

"I wouldn't do something like that, Nightwing," I said lowly, "and you very well know it."

I could feel Nightwing's careful, assessing gaze rake itself over my huddled figure. "Well, unfortunately," he said slowly, "I don't know that, because I don't know you. I only know what Batman told me; I haven't even looked at your file yet. And what he – and Black Canary – told me, is that you're going through a tough time at the mo-"

"A tough time?" I said incredulously. I got up from the bed, a spark of anger racing through my chest. "A tough time? Are you freaking kidding me? Do you even know what I do? Do you even know what I did?" My voice was beginning to sound feverish and loud, even to my own ears, and I dimly felt the air begin to cool around me. I desperately tried to reign in my temper. I had to get this under control. No, scratch that. I _needed_ to get this under control. "Get out," I said. He had to get out before I did something. He had to get out before something like what had happened with that woman happened with him. But Nightwing didn't move, his whole body tense and straight as a board. His hands were poised warily next to his utility belt and, for the first time, I understood that I – former normal-Susannah-Brown – was a threat. The realisation almost brought me to my knees. How had this happened? Or perhaps more importantly, when had this happened?

"Susannah," Nightwing said calmly, "calm down."

I hated how composed he was. It was like he was taunting me. "Get out."

"Hmm, yeah," the voice of my unexpected, yet no longer unfamiliar, visitor said mockingly. "I actually agree with you for once. He should get out. I mean, come on. You seriously look like a crazy lady right now and if I were he, I would have started running a long time ago." Holy hell, I didn't need her right now! "You know, maybe that's not a bad thing... Show's that he has balls." She snickered quietly.

"Get out!" I screamed, no longer sure as to whom I was actually shouting the words to.

But Nightwing still didn't leave. "Susannah, talk to me. Tell me what's going on."

The temperature in the room lowered even further and I felt the tell tale sign of the ice begin to creep up my fingertips. I shut my eyes tightly, fear and self-hatred running through my veins. I had to stop this. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nightwing step cautiously forward, one of his hands now reaching out to me.

I immediately stepped back from him.

"Don't touch me," I snapped. "Don't you dare touch me."

…

Her eyes were brighter than they had ever been and her skin was now so translucently pale that Nightwing feared that if she touched something, her skin would break on impact. He cursed himself. He should have read her file. He had had the time to read it ever since he had found out that Susannah Brown was the new powered one that the League were bringing in. In this one respect, he should have listened to Batman.

But Nightwing hadn't. Instead, he had been hoping, for some foolish reason that he would be able to get her to open up to him. Suffice to say, she hadn't even come close to revealing what her powers were and now he was in a potentially very threatening situation. He cursed again.

"I'm not going to touch you," Nightwing said carefully. Was that ice covering her fingertips? "Just tell me what's going on and maybe I can try and help."

"You can't help me."

The bleak way that Susannah said those simple four words made Nightwing look at the redhead sharply.

"You can do this, Susannah. Look, I don't know what's going on right now in that mind of yours, but you. Can. Control this."

Susannah laughed a watery laugh and Nightwing vaguely noticed that tears were beginning to fill her eyes. They looked wrong on her and she rubbed at them roughly, wiping away the traitorous drops of water that threatened to fall down her cheeks. "I wish that I could," she whispered, turning her head away from him. "I wish that I could just… turn it all off and I wish that everything could go back to the way that it was."

The ice was beginning to travel further and further up her arms in wretchedly beautiful spiraling patterns. It was funny how sometimes the most beautiful things were the most dangerous…

Nightwing swallowed, thinking about his next words very deliberately. There was always Option B if things got too out of hand, but the last thing that Nightwing wanted to do was sedate her. That would surely ruin any type of future partnership that they could potentially have and Nightwing did not want to destroy that unless he absolutely had to.

"You can learn to control it, Susannah," Nightwing said firmly. "I'm not saying that things well ever really go back to normal for you, but you can have a shot at it."

Silence fell between them, only the sound of Susannah's ragged breathing filling up the room.

After what felt like an endless amount of time to Nightwing, her soft words filled the room, her voice no longer quivering with anger and grief. "Please. I won't ask again. Get out."

Her resigned tone almost made Nightwing breathe out in relief, but he stepped back towards the doorway obediently. "I'll be back later," he promised. "And I'll see about getting you those sleeping pills."

She nodded hollowly and he turned to leave.

"Uh, Nightwing?" She fidgeted lightly, not making eye contact as he turned around to look at her. "I just wanted to say thanks, for you know, bringing me back down from… whatever that was. It can be a... bit hard to control."

Nightwing nodded briefly. "If you ever get like that again, and I don't care what time it is, I'll come for you. Got it? You don't have to do this alone."

She hesitated. "Don't you want to know what I can do though? I know that you're curious. I can see it written all over your face."

He titled his head in thought. "Yes," he said eventually. "I am curious. But I'm not going to ask until you're ready."

Susannah kept her gaze firmly on the ground, as she shifted uncomfortably. "I can tell you now, if you like," she mumbled.

"Only if you want to tell me," he replied seriously.

She raised her eyes from the ground. "I have a connection to the dead," she said bluntly. "I don't know exactly what the connection is or what I can do with the connection, but what I do know is that I have the power to save a life and," she took a deep breath, "take a life too. It's like its some kind of defence mechanism. Whenever I get scared, anxious, worried, panicked, angry…" she shivered subconsciously, "then it just happens. I go really cold and it's like I'm reaching over to the other side or something. There's ice and everything, as I'm sure you noticed."

Nightwing didn't say anything as he leaned against the doorway, keeping his face carefully blank. Truth be told though, Nightwing had never heard of powers like hers before. A connection to the dead… If that was true, then she could be extremely powerful. She could be a fantastic asset to the team or its worst nightmare.

"And can you do anything else?" Nightwing asked warily, not sure as to what her answer would be.

She sighed and shifted uncomfortably. "I can see ghosts."

"Ghosts?" This time, Nightwing couldn't keep the disbelief out of his voice.

Susannah flushed and started playing with a strand of her hair. "Well, technically, there's only one that's following me around. She keeps popping up all over the place." Susannah paused, before smiling grimly. "She's kind of like my guardian angel, I guess you could say. But other than that, I don't know about anything else that I can do."

"Well," Nightwing said, smiling a small smile at her, "if there is something else, then we'll find out what it is and help you with it, because like I said earlier Susannah – and this isn't something that I want you to forget – but we're here for you. You're a part of a team now."

…

Nightwing left a short while after that, making me feel relieved yet slightly dejected at the same time. He was one of the first people whom I'd talked with who was similar to my age in a long while, and when he turned to leave, I had almost called out for him not to go. Around him, I didn't feel like such a… freak. Because that's what I was now – a freak. I sighed and sat myself slowly on the bed, looking around my colourless room despondently. I know that Nightwing had said that he would get something to help me sleep, but right now, after the almost disaster, the last thing that I honestly wanted to do was sleep. For a moment, I was tempted to go and find M'gann and see if she wanted to go on that shopping trip, but I had a feeling that I would simply end up lost in this massive, underground base.

I sat on my bed, slightly torn as to what I should do. It would be nice to go with M'gann, yet… I sighed and got right back up to my feet again. Moping in my room wasn't going to really do anything, so why not go and get to know some of the other freaks in the cave?

I padded softly out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind me, and looked up the corridor. There was no way that I was going to remember which way the kitchen was. Oh well. At least it would get me to look around the cave a bit, right? I started walking up the empty hallway.

I didn't know how long I wandered around the base until I came across my new teammates sitting together on a large, squishy looking couch. The smell of burnt cookies lingered in the air.

"Susannah!" M'gann cried joyfully when she saw me and she jumped up from the couch and skipped over to me. "So do you want to go out? I know the cutest store that sells the cutest things," she sighed dreamily. "When I was settling in here, I went there and it was like all of my homesickness went away!"

I smiled weakly. Although this had been my plan along, to go out with M'gann, there was still a part of me that was very reluctant about the whole thing. Shopping had never and probably never would be one of my favourite things to do and seeing M'gann's gleeful face just convinced me that if I went out, I would return late and laden with boxes of useless stuff that I didn't need. But then and again… I had been given that card from Nightwing earlier, hadn't I?

Maybe going out and buying some useless shit was exactly what I needed after all.

* * *

**Hey everyone!  
Sorry for the long wait, but the last couple of months have been absolutely crazy for me! Oh well. At least it's the holidays now, which means lots of time for writing, so if everything goes to plan, then hopefully there will be another update for this story in another week.**

**Anyway, seeing as the likelihood of me updating before Christmas is unlikely, I wish all of you awesome readers a wonderful ****Christmas! Also, thanks for all of the new reviews and follows! You're all super amazing.**

**Merry Christmas!**

**WriteWithFeeling xx**


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